Waymo has launched a hiring spree in London for operational staff to manage a fleet of driverless cars and respond to incidents on the road, in preparation for the start of its first London trials in 2026. Autonomous taxi rides without a human driver behind the wheel are expected to begin in Britain next year and London would represent one of Waymo’s first markets outside America, says the Daily Telegraph.

The Government has said it will allow limited trials of the technology, in which passengers can book robot cars from an app, from spring. London is expected to be a crucial market for driverless car companies.

Uber has said it will start testing fully autonomous cars on London’s roads using technology from British start-up Wayve who have just started driverless trials with Nissan in Tokyo.

Tesla – which this year launched a Robotaxi service in Texas – is also pushing for driverless technology to be allowed in the UK, having recently demonstrated its self-driving system navigating London’s streets.

Last week, Waymo posted London-based job adverts for a “fleet readiness lead” who is responsible for maintaining driverless cars and an “incident response manager” who handles how the company reacts to road accidents or breakdowns.

The company already has software and AI staff in the UK, having bought the Oxford-based AI start-up Latent Logic in 2019, but the adverts are the first indication it is preparing to launch rides.

A spokesman said that the company was continuing to hire and invest in Britain and that it had always said it planned to expand globally.

(Pic: Waymo)