Fifteen electric Ford Mustangs have begun steering themselves around London as the capital's first commercial self-driving taxi service. This partnership between Uber and the UK-based AI start-up Wayve is hardly the first such service: autonomous 'robotaxis' — many without safety drivers — operate in more than 20 cities in the US, China and the Middle East. Yet London's narrow streets, teeming with pedestrians, cyclists and double-decker buses, present a special challenge. To borrow a phrase associated with another great world city, if robotaxis can make it here, they can make it anywhere.

Many residents are not convinced they should. You Gov in July found 42 per cent of Londoners opposed autonomous passenger vehicles, with only 29 per cent in support. Concerns ranged from safety to job losses. Still, more than 140,000 people have registered to try out Uber's AVs.

Robotaxis deserve to succeed, in London and elsewhere. Despite some unfortunate and highly publicised accidents, data suggests the best AVs are already a lot safer than human drivers. Nearly 1.2mn people die globally every year in road crashes; human error is a contributing factor in the vast majority. An independent analysis found driverless vehicles from Alphabet's Waymo in four US cities were involved in 68 per cent fewer crashes per vehicle mile than human drivers — though this is human drivers generally, not just professional ones.

Driverless vehicles can struggle with 'edge cases' ranging from snow to traffic light failures. But they may become better at handling such situations over time as the technology evolves. Rather than relying on their training on high-definition maps, the latest 'vision-language-action' models, developed by companies including Wayve, use cameras paired with language-based AI to improve their ability to interpret unfamiliar situations. For now, robotaxis are costlier to operate due to development costs and extra kit. But Goldman Sachs says operational and scale efficiencies could cut costs sharply, and projects a $415bn global robotaxi market by 2035. As costs fall, driverless vehicles could start to displace driver-operated taxis and, in big cities, even private car ownership.