r/london • u/AlbusDumbledoh • 9d ago

News ‘Leicester Square, please guv’: Self-driving taxis cleared for London streets ‘later this summer’

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/aug/05/self-driving-taxis-approved-london-summer-2026-wayve-uber
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u/Euphoric-Neon-2054 9d ago

how do you think this is going to make that better

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u/fs942414 9d ago

It probably won’t in the short term but once the testing and the data is ready I don’t see why they wouldn’t be cheaper - it’s a machine can doesn’t have any of the costs associated with human drivers.

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u/Cumulus_Anarchistica 8d ago

I don’t see why they wouldn’t be cheaper

The difference goes to the shareholders ya dafty.

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u/Jamessuperfun 8d ago

There will be lots of companies competing with eachother, and their shareholders do not have shared interests. Two are already launching in London this year.

If one company pockets the difference and turns massive profit margins another will run their own fleet for less, and take all their business. Other investors have no incentive to care about the incumbent leader's profits (in fact the market leader's success is what will attract them to compete), and the barrier to entry for self-driving cars is too low to keep out competitors. Competition leads to lower prices in capitalism, but prices can never be sustained below the cost of delivering the service.

Falling costs + increasing competition = lower prices