Baidu begins London robotaxi tests with Lyft and Freenow

London is quickly filling up with robotaxi trials, and this week added another serious operator. TechCrunch reports that Chinese tech giant Baidu started testing its Apollo Go RT6 vehicles in the borough of Brent on Tuesday, with human safety operators behind the wheel and dozens of cars in the initial deployment. Public rides are targeted for 2027, pending regulatory approval.

The interesting choice is the partnership shape. Baidu is not going alone. It is working through Lyft and Freenow, the German taxi and multi-mobility app that Lyft acquired in 2025 for about $197 million. Thomas Zimmermann, CEO of Freenow by Lyft, framed the arrangement as one where "autonomous technology supports the professional drivers who keep London moving." Read that as a political statement as much as an operational one, aimed at a licensed London taxi trade that has historically pushed back on app disruption.

The wider signal is that London is now a live test bench for several autonomy stacks in the same year. Waymo began its own London testing with human safety operators in April, and Uber's tie-up with Wayve is targeted at a launch in the city this year, according to the same reporting. Transport for London and the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles are effectively going to be picking winners through pilot approvals, which puts real soft power in the hands of British regulators who only recently opened the AV pilot programme to applications.

The honest caveats are worth flagging. This is testing with safety drivers, not a driverless service, so the 2027 public launch line is a target rather than a commitment. The reporting does not disclose the commercial split between Baidu, Lyft and Freenow, or how pricing will compare with Uber or with licensed black cabs. It also does not detail what Baidu safety data, if any, has been shared with TfL to support moving beyond a supervised pilot.

If it works, the upside is worth watching. Lyft gets an AV credential in a European market where its US rival does not directly operate, at partnership cost rather than a full stack build. Baidu gets one of the few high-profile deployments of Chinese autonomy software in a Western regulated city, useful precedent for further expansion. London riders end up in the rarer version of an emerging mobility market, one where several serious operators are trialling on the same streets before any single one can lock in.