The CEO of luxury private hire company Addison Lee is calling for cab drivers in London to be protected with “a minimum price” on robotaxis to prevent “predatory pricing”.
The Financial Times reports Liam Griffin has warned that existing private-hire taxi groups could be “priced out of the market” if companies like Waymo and Tesla were able to charge prices significantly lower than existing fares, given that London black cabs have tightly regulated fares, and a minimum journey price of £4.20.
“We do feel that there is a danger that the big players can come in and roughshod over the existing industry,” he’s quoted as saying. “We can’t just have this new shiny technology roll out and all of a sudden forget about the drivers that we’ve all relied on for such a long time,” he added.
Furthermore he says: “The players with the deepest pockets have the potential to win . . . and we need the regulator to make sure that a handful of players don’t come in . . . and make it unachievable for the existing operators such as ourselves.”
(Picture – Olga Gonzalez)
