Lyft is preparing to bring Chinese robotaxis to London and believes autonomous vehicles will grow the capital’s transport market rather than replace its drivers.

The Uber rival has claimed the arrival of self-driving vehicles would create a “hybrid network” of robotaxis and human drivers, as the American mobility giant expands its presence across Britain through a series of acquisitions.

“It doesn’t need to be a zero-sum game,” Jeremy Bird, Lyft’s executive vice president of global growth, told City AM. “There will be autonomous vehicles and there will be human-driven vehicles.

The comments come as the auto behemoth prepares to begin testing autonomous vehicles supplied by Chinese technology giant Baidu on London’s roads within weeks, placing the capital at the centre of an increasingly competitive race between some of the world’s largest autonomous vehicle developers.

The first batch of Baidu’s Apollo Go vehicles have already arrived in London and are currently undergoing certification before being deployed with safety operators behind the wheel.

“The vehicles are here,” Bird said. “Once that process is done, which should be in the next couple of weeks, they will be out on the road.”

A commercial rollout is expected to follow once the UK’s new automated vehicle framework is fully implemented and regulatory approvals are secured, which would mark a significant milestone for Europe’s autonomous vehicle industry.

While robotaxis have become increasingly common across parts of the US and China, London is emerging as the continent’s most closely watched proving ground.

British startup Wayve is preparing autonomous trials with Uber, while Google’s Waymo is targeting a launch in the capital next year.

Bird believes London has become attractive for many of the same reasons that helped autonomous vehicles gain traction in cities such as Phoenix and San Francisco.

“The technology is getting there,” he said. “And the city is open to innovation.”

London’s transport ecosystem

For Lyft, however, autonomous vehicles are only one part of a much broader bet on London.

The company has spent the past year rapidly expanding its footprint across Europe, with its £140m acquisition of Freenow giving it access to nine European markets.

Meanwhile, its subsequent purchase of Gett’s UK business strengthened its position in London’s black cab market.

Combined, the deals mean Lyft now sits across much of the capital’s transport ecosystem – from black cabs and private hire vehicles to chauffeur services and Santander Cycles infrastructure.

Within the next year, the company plans to bring those services together under a single global platform.

“You can get a taxi, you can get a bike, you’ll be able to get a chauffeur,” he said. “Ultimately we want to be a place where you can get anywhere you want to go.”

The strategy also reflects a different approach to London than many tech firms adopted during the first wave of ride-hailing disruption.

Rather than positioning autonomous vehicles as a replacement for existing transport services, Lyft is keen to stress their role alongside them.

Keeping black cabs on the streets

That is particularly true when it comes to London’s black cab – and Lyft’s acquisition of Gett gives it access to one of the capital’s largest black cab booking networks, alongside Freenow’s existing taxi business.

“It’s iconic worldwide,” said Bird. “It’s critical to the London ecosystem.”

The emphasis on taxis also appears designed to distinguish Lyft from rivals that have historically faced more adversarial relationships with drivers and regulators.

“We don’t come into a community or city and demand, we want to come in and earn our right”, he added.

The company argues that London’s transport future is likely to look more blended than revolutionary.

Bird points to Phoenix, Arizona – one of the most mature autonomous vehicle markets globally – where robotaxis have expanded the overall transport market rather than shrinking it.

“When supply grows, the pie grows. The ETAs go down, reliability improves and more people use the service.”

However, that does not mean concerns have disappeared, with questions over safety and the future role of drivers continuing to dominate discussions around autonomous vehicles on both sides of the Atlantic.

Bird accepts that autonomous vehicles will face greater scrutiny than human drivers for some time, but he believes adoption will ultimately mirror what happened in California, where robotaxis moved from novelty to normality within a few years.

“By the fifth or tenth ride, you don’t really notice it anymore,” he said.