Self-driving cars could be on the cusp of great things.
But the brands behind them need to tell a story about trust, not just technology, explains Keir Bosley.
If you live or work in London, you’ve probably already seen them.
Distinctive white, all-electric Jaguar SUVs, kitted out with an array of cameras and sensors. Waymo’s autonomous cars can already be spotted beetling around the capital, albeit with a driver still very much behind the wheel, gathering data from these trial runs to help support their planned public launch later this year.
They aren’t the only ones. Other operators are also making inroads with piloting and testing driverless taxis, with some allowing users to join an interest list to help improve their chances of booking an autonomous ride when the service launches.
And – broadly speaking – the regulatory framework to help make this a reality is well underway. While there is still more to do and plenty of fine detail to work out, the Automated Vehicles Act 2024 has paved the way for the legal and regulatory framework for the rollout of self-driving cars on British roads – in many ways giving us an advantage over markets like the EU and US, where regulation is looked at on a state-by-state basis.
In short, 2026 has the potential to be a genuinely pivotal year for autonomous vehicles in the UK. I missed out on the chance to try a driverless trip while running some firstlight training workshops in San Franciso a few years ago. So I’m very curious to give the experience a go.
Seeing a taxi with no driver collect people from a street corner and whisk them off into the distance is still… novel.
But – there’s always one – to make this work, brands need to change the conversation around AVs. They need to reframe this from one about tech specs, innovation and urban design, to one that’s about trust.
Public sentiment is not entirely on the side of AVs. Towards the end of last year, YouGov found that a large majority of people say they wouldn’t get in a driverless taxi.
These concerns are not entirely without merit. We’ve all seen the TikTok clips. Safety, cyber vulnerability, loss of control. There are some legitimate questions that the industry has a significant opportunity to address in a robust and convincing way – at least here in the UK.
As any driver (or indeed a passenger princess like myself) will tell you, London’s roads are dense, complex and beset by – how can I put this? – a refreshingly in-the-moment approach to lane changing.
The autonomous vehicle sector shouldn’t conflate a regulatory green light with a social licence. Getting a permit to operate is not the same as getting the public’s enthusiastic endorsement. If you’re asking people to get into a car that has no driver, a significant amount of advance work needs to go into making sure they feel good about doing so.
It’s not just the launch of an exciting new product or offer. It’s behaviour change. And that’s a different comms job.
The companies that will win longer-term aren’t just the ones with the best technology. They’re the ones that don’t rush into this without proper thought and who prioritise safety as part of a planned and managed transition. Who make sure the proper safeguards and regulation is in place.
They’ll be the ones that treat public trust as a commercial imperative and invest in building this well before they need it. Not after something goes wrong.
So now is the time to start building trust in the future of ride hailing and travel.