Uber Begins Self-Driving Taxi Tests on the Streets of Manchester

Ride-hailing company Uber has begun trials of self-driving cars in Manchester, a city in England. The move brings the company a step closer to introducing robotaxis, meaning passenger rides without a human driver, in cities across the United Kingdom.

What is being used in the trials

The tests rely on systems developed by Uber's technology partners, Pony and Verne. Uber recently worked with the same companies to launch Europe's first autonomous taxi service in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.

The current phase

In the present stage of the trials, the vehicles are mapping Manchester's streets and testing the self-driving systems. The source text is cut off at this point, so further details of how the trials will proceed and when a robotaxi service could start are not known.

Mapping streets is one of the first steps through which autonomous systems learn the environment they will later have to navigate. Manchester thus becomes another place in Europe where Uber and its partners are trying to bring in autonomous taxis, following the Zagreb launch.