Over 100,000 Londoners Wait for Robotaxis Uber Drivers Fear

By Grace Kim

More than 100,000 people have joined Uber's robotaxi waitlist in London since the first UK driverless services launched in September. That's the demand side. The supply of human drivers sees it very differently.

Uber drivers plan a protest at Wayve's London headquarters, the company whose self-driving technology underpins the new services. The pushback comes roughly two months after Transport for London (TfL) approved the rollout, a decision announced in August that took many drivers off guard.

"I think we should all be worried," Florentina Ghiuzan, an Uber driver from Essex, told The Guardian. "I was shocked TfL approved it so soon. I knew change would come. But I thought it would come with a solution for us."

What does the backlash look like?

The resistance has two fronts: street-level and political.

• Drivers. Uber drivers, including Ghiuzan, fear the robotaxi rollout will eliminate their livelihoods without any transition plan. A protest is being organized at Wayve's headquarters.
• Politicians. London politicians are demanding that TfL be given direct power over robotaxi licences, arguing the current approval structure doesn't hold operators accountable enough.

Together, the two groups are pressing for a slower, more regulated rollout of driverless taxis across the capital.

How big is the demand?

The numbers explain why operators are moving fast. More than 100,000 passengers have signed up for Uber's London waitlist — a figure that signals genuine consumer appetite for the technology in one of Europe's largest ride-hailing markets.

The first UK robotaxi services went live in September, following TfL's approval in August. That timeline — from sign-off to street operations in a matter of weeks — is exactly what caught drivers like Ghiuzan unprepared.

The takeaway: demand is proven, but the speed of the rollout has outpaced any plan for the drivers it displaces.

What are politicians actually asking for?

City politicians want licensing authority placed squarely with TfL, the body that already regulates London's taxis and private-hire vehicles. Their argument is straightforward: if TfL oversees traditional cabs, it should also hold the power over who operates autonomous ones, and under what conditions.

The demand amounts to a bid to slow or limit the London rollout until oversight is settled. For Wayve and Uber, that means the political question of licences is now as consequential as the technical question of whether the cars can drive.

So what happens next?

The protest at Wayve HQ will be the first visible test of driver opposition on the ground. The political fight over TfL's licensing powers will run through City Hall and the boroughs.

And the 100,000-strong waitlist guarantees one thing: whatever regulators decide, the passenger demand for robotaxis in London isn't going away. The battle is over who controls the pace — and who pays the cost of the transition.