Driverless taxis in London – permit or no permit?

As autonomous vehicle (AV) operators circle London in ever-greater numbers, the key question for insurers is no longer if driverless taxis will arrive, but when formal permission will be granted for them to carry paying passengers without a human driver. Autonomous taxi services are expected to move from trials to permitted operations imminently, but the regulatory switch has not yet been flipped.

Currently, London stands at a pivotal regulatory moment. Trials are accelerating, government is emphatically pro innovation, and operators such as Waymo, Uber and Wayve are signalling readiness. Yet despite the tempo of announcements, no commercial autonomous taxi service has yet been formally permitted to operate in London. That final step now hinges on a single mechanism: the Automated Passenger Services (APS) permitting scheme.

The APS scheme

The legal foundation for driverless taxis was laid by the Automated Vehicles Act 2024. However, the Act alone does not authorise commercial services. That function falls to the APS, designed specifically to deal with taxi, private hire and bus style services operating without a driver. The APS consultation closed in September 2025, with government confirming that the statutory instrument enabling the scheme would come into force in spring 2026, allowing permits to be issued thereafter.

Under the APS scheme operators will require a permit to carry paying passengers in vehicles with no safety driver. Each deployment must be supported by a detailed safety case, assessed by the Vehicle Certification Agency with permits being service specific, rather than blanket approvals. Whilst the APS permit is granted at national level by the Department for Transport, the consent of the local licensing authority is required prior to permit approval. This is where conflict has already arisen.

Transport for London (TfL) has recently confirmed that no autonomous vehicle currently operating in the UK meets the standards required to carry passengers as a licensed taxi or private hire vehicle in the capital. Speaking to the London Assembly Transport Committee, TfL Commissioner Andy Lord and Deputy Mayor for Transport Seb Dance stressed that fully driverless technology remains well short of London’s regulatory requirements.

While autonomous vehicles may operate on public roads for testing, TfL made clear that none can legally carry fare paying passengers and that licences for “unproven” robotaxi services would not be granted. The comments come amid growing interest from AV developers and rising concern over safety, accessibility, congestion and the impact on professional drivers - concerns echoed by the Institute of Licensing, which has warned against weakening existing taxi and private hire regulation for automated passenger services.

Why permits matter

For insurers, the granting of an APS permit is not merely symbolic. It represents a legal and risk watershed.

Once an APS permitted service is operating driver liability falls away when the vehicle is in self driving mode, with responsibility shifting to the authorised self driving entity, creating a hybrid risk profile spanning motor, product liability and systems failure. Passenger injury claims begin to resemble those associated with public transport rather than private motoring. Incidents involving pedestrians and cyclists raise novel questions about fault, causation and system defect.

Importantly, London’s anticipated emphasis on accessibility and operational conditions may result in permit specific restrictions, producing a patchwork of operational models across different UK cities in the early years of deployment.

So where are we now?

Despite headlines suggesting driverless taxis are “weeks away”, the position in London as of April 2026 is that the legal framework is in place but the permitting scheme is not. Consequently, no APS permits have yet been formally issued, and no driverless taxi service is carrying paying passengers in London.

Once the first confirmed grant of an APS permit is announced is when autonomous vehicles in London will move from experimentation to operational reality — and the insurance market will need to adjust rapidly.