Baidu robotaxi unit Apollo Go and Lyft-owned Freenow have begun road-testing sixth-generation RT6 robotaxis in London, with safety drivers on board and public rides targeted for 2027—subject to regulatory approval. Apollo Go is the third robotaxi entrant in London, joining Waymo and the Uber-Wayve partnership, and its launch marks the first time Chinese autonomous vehicle technology has been tested on the city’s roads. In London, the competition is divided across two relatively distinct strategies. On the one hand, there is the partnership model, comprising a ride hailing platform operator and a smaller autonomous driving firm either lacking the resources or local know-how to go it alone. Uber’s dominant UK ride-hailing app, for example, is paired with UK firm Wayve’s technology, while Freenow, rooted in London’s licensed taxi and private-hire industry, is now paired with Baidu’s purpose-built RT6 hardware. Waymo, by contrast, is trying to own the robotaxi experience from end-to-end. It runs a standalone Waymo One app with fleet partner Moove, betting riders will download a dedicated service rather than dispatch through an existing one. The company has drawn attention recently for its public break-up with Uber and will terminate services through the platform in Atlanta and Austin by around May 2028. Services in Phoenix have already been wound down. Going it alone will be challenging for Waymo, particularly in unproven markets like London where Uber already dominates. Here, Apollo Go also arrives at a real distribution disadvantage. While Freenow might operate across 180 European cities, it lacks Uber’s specific scale in London. The latter’s existing dominance gives Wayve immediate access to a far larger base of habitual riders than Freenow and Apollo Go can currently draw on. Apollo Go still has several advantages, and perhaps chief among them are the economics of its purpose-built RT6 robotaxi. Each vehicle costs