London firm promises self-driving cabs by 2021

london — A fleet of autonomous taxis could roll onto the streets of the UK capital within three years, after one of London’s biggest private-hire taxi companies struck a deal with a maker of autonomous vehicle software.

Addison Lee Group, which has about 5,000 cars in active service in the city, signed a strategic partnership with software-maker Oxbotica, the two companies said Monday. Oxbotica was recently also chosen to guide the European Space Agency’s future Mars rover. Andy Boland, Addison

We will eventually work out some sort of commercial arrangement, but we don’t feel the need to have those discussions Graeme Smith, Chief executive officer, Oxbotica

Lee’s chief executive officer, said in a statement that ‘urban transport will change beyond recognition in the next 10 years with the introduction of selfdriving services’ and that the partnership with Oxbotica would help put the company ‘at the very forefront of this change.’

The effort is one of several selfdriving initiatives in the UK Earlier this year, Nissan began testing autonomous vehicles on British roads, and Ford has begun testing similar technology with Jaguar Land Rover in Coventry.

Meanwhile FiveAI, a British startup, has said it will begin trials of an autonomous ride-sharing service in London’s suburbs next year.

“We will eventually work out some sort of commercial arrangement, but we don’t feel the need to have those discussions first,” Graeme Smith, Oxbotica’s chief executive officer, said in an interview.