Is London ready for driverless taxis? – podcast
Autonomous cabs are a staple in some US cities – but how will they cope with London’s streets? Gwyn Topham and Johana Bhuiyan report
Today in Focus presenter Helen Pidd enjoys a ride in a driverless taxi in Austin, Texas, as transport correspondent Gwyn Topham examines whether the technology can adapt to London’s medieval streets when Waymo robotaxis arrive in the UK capital next year.
They are joined by Johana Bhuiyan, a senior tech reporter at the Guardian US, who has been chronicling the ups and downs – and many false starts – of the autonomous car industry for a decade.
Will ghost taxis put a whole workforce out of a job? Will British passengers behave themselves without a human driver in the front seat – and can the technology really be trusted to keep people safe?
