Uber says it is ‘ready to go’ as government delays driverless vehicle legislation

Uber has declared it is ready to bring completely driverless taxis to the UK, despite latest government estimations that such legislation will not be passed until the end of 2027.

The transportation company has trialled ‘robotaxis’ in the United States, where customers pay the same rate but can specify which type of vehicle they’d like to ride in.

Despite this, successive UK governments have been more reserved about rolling out the technology here – due to consumer hesitancy and regulatory infrastructure, according to experts at Bayes Business School.

Professor Feng Li, Associate Dean of Research and Innovation, said it represented a missed opportunity.

“The opportunity for the UK to become an early adopter in frontier technologies is being squandered by an overcautious regime,” said Professor Li.

“Wayve and Uber say they are ready to deploy autonomous vehicles in the UK. China and the US are already operating driverless fleets, while Singapore has quietly moved ahead of us with structured trials and real-world deployments, thanks to clear national frameworks and proactive policy.

“Our insistence on perfect conditions risks holding back progress and pushing talent and investment elsewhere. If the UK is serious about competing in the age of tech and innovation, it needs a more pragmatic, agile, and forward-looking approach – and one that encourages experimentation, accelerates adoption, and embraces calculated risk.

“We may not out-invent the US or out-scale China, but we can still out-adopt them if we stop holding ourselves back.”

Dr Amit Rawal, Lecturer in Management, however, believes the decision to delay is the correct one because of UK consumers’ attitudes towards this technology.

“The UK is quite right to push back on the release of driverless vehicles, and it is reasonable to expect more time” said Dr Rawal.

“This has not yet been deployed for a medley of reasons, including the requirement of further safety tests and essentially, a shift in social attitudes. These will take time.

“Moreover, totally driverless cars could lead to job cuts. The government will need to position this argument well to gain public backing. If and when they are licenced in the UK, driverless cars will need to be implemented in a safe manner, restricted to low-speed and high-security areas.”

Irene Scopelliti, Professor of Marketing and Behavioural Science, shares these reservations, and does not believe the UK market is psychologically ready for the challenge of such a shift.

“While Uber may be ready for driverless cars, the public is still catching up psychologically,” Professor Scopelliti said.

“According to a recent survey, only 22 per cent of road users say they would trust a driverless car and feel comfortable traveling in one. What holds us back is not only regulation, but how we think and feel about automation.

“Algorithm aversion is making us less forgiving of errors made by machines than those made by humans, especially when they have no say in how decisions are made. Due to the availability heuristic, a single autonomous vehicle crash tends to draw far more attention than the many crashes caused by human drivers every week, even though those fatalities are far more common. 

“Driverless cars also raise moral dilemmas. Research shows many consumers support cars that are programmed to minimise overall harm in accidents, even if that means sacrificing the passenger, but they would not want to ride in such a car.

“More generally, people distrust what they do not understand and often prefer the familiar risks of human drivers to the unfamiliar risks posed by machines. Ambiguity aversion makes uncertainty around how autonomous systems work harder to accept, and status quo bias means we tend to stick with what we know, even when change might bring better outcomes.

“If we want a driverless future by 2027, we need strategies that address these psychological barriers, not just technological ones.”