Transport for London (TfL) has granted private hire vehicle licences to Wayve's self-driving Ford Mustang Mach-E fleet ahead of a supervised autonomous passenger trial operated under Uber's existing private hire operator licence2.
The vehicles will initially operate with a trained, TfL-licensed private hire driver onboard, in line with the Government's Automated Vehicle Trialling Code of Practice, allowing the safety driver to intervene if required.
The GMB Union, which represents thousands of private hire drivers across London, responded to the licensing decision by raising concerns about employment, passenger safety, and the wider social impact of introducing autonomous vehicles into the capital's licensed transport network1.
GMB Regional Organiser Matthew Wright described the move as "a worrying development for our private hire driver members". "We can't go charging ahead with new technologies without considering the implications of autonomous vehicles on all parties," Wright said.
Wright questioned how displaced workers would be supported: "For drivers; how will they be supported to reskill and redeploy if their jobs go? How will society cope with the lost tax revenue and potential increases in unemployment?".
The union urged authorities not to rush the deployment of autonomous vehicle technology without fully considering its wider social and economic implications.
ANALYSIS The trial structure — requiring a licensed safety driver in every vehicle — keeps the immediate operational model close to conventional private hire service, but the licensing approval itself establishes a regulatory pathway for autonomous passenger transport in one of the world's largest urban markets. The GMB's intervention signals that labour opposition will be a persistent factor as the trial progresses toward less-supervised operation.