London has robotaxis. None of them are driverless.

Welcome to the first Landing Soon. Every Tuesday we go through what actually arrived in the UK, what’s genuinely dated next, and what slipped. We use real dates, real prices and links to every source. If something on the board is wrong, reply and tell us.

We meant to start in September, so our own launch slipped too. It seemed only fair to say so.

The lead: London’s robotaxis come with a driver

Since 3 September you can be matched with a self-driving car when you book an UberX, Uber Electric or Uber Comfort in London. These are Wayve-driven Ford Mustang Mach-Es at the normal fare, with no surcharge, and you can decline the match. There’s a trained safety driver behind the wheel on every trip, and the fleet is small: 15 cars were reported as licensed by TfL in August.

Meanwhile, the company that wants nobody in the driver’s seat has gone quiet on dates. Waymo was reported in January to be aiming for a September commercial launch. Its “Vision for London” post on 24 September gave no date and no fares, and the company now says only “by the end of the year”.

The bottleneck is a permit. Since 15 May, operators have been able to apply under the UK’s new driverless pilot rules for a permit to run passenger services with no one behind the wheel. As of late August, none had been reported as granted, and TfL told the London Assembly it was in no rush to publish its guidance.

What it means for you: a supervised robotaxi ride in London costs the same as an Uber, so try one if you’re curious. For anyone planning around driverless transport in 2026, pencil in “maybe late 2026, London only”, and don’t budget for it yet.

Shipped

• Wayve and Mercedes-Benz. On 22 September Wayve signed a production agreement to put its driving software in future Mercedes cars within two years. That’s not a car you can buy yet, but it is a British AI company going into mass production.
• AI tools at work keep landing. Microsoft 365 Copilot Business is £16.10 per user per month on an annual plan, ex VAT, with a promotional £13.80 until 31 December. Meta opened its Muse agent to small businesses on 29 September, but Muse is only available in the US and Canada so far. Our small-business AI agents entry has the per-seat maths.
• Drones over Darlington. Amazon Prime Air has flown around 500 deliveries under a Civil Aviation Authority trial and has reportedly asked the CAA to cover the whole town. A drone crashed on 29 July, and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch is investigating. The trial approval runs to 31 December.

Due in

• 1X NEO, the $20,000 home humanoid. On 19 September 1X’s chief executive set a target of 50,000 shipments in 2027 from a second factory. Two caveats: we couldn’t find independent confirmation of a NEO in a paying customer’s home yet, and 1X has never named the UK. Its line is “other markets from 2027”, so the UK is our inference, not their promise.

Delayed

• Waymo London: from a reported September to “by end of 2026”.
• Vertical Aerospace’s Valo: the Bristol air taxi’s certification target has moved from 2028 to 2029. The company opened its assembly centre at Cotswold Airport on 25 September. The first UK routes are now 2029 at the earliest.
• Driverless taxi and bus pilots: the rules have been live since May, but no permits have been reported.

Not orderable, still

• Figure 03 completed 56% of whole household tasks in 30 Bay Area homes it had never seen (17 September). That’s impressive for a robot and a coin-flip for a household. There’s no price and no home sales date.
• Tesla Optimus: renders of a third-generation design turned up in the Tesla app on 23 September. Tesla hasn’t announced a reveal, a price or a UK plan. The “on sale by end of 2027” line comes from Musk at Davos, not from a Tesla commitment.

New this week: follow anything on the board and we’ll email you the day its UK status changes. Try it on the 1X NEO page. And our guides answer the questions people actually search for, starting with can you buy a humanoid robot in the UK?

That’s the board for this week. If it was useful, forward it to someone who runs a business. See you next Tuesday at 7am.