2026年9月5日 / 美国东部时间晚上10:00 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
自动驾驶出租车已现身伦敦街头，这是优步在这座布局密集、环岛数不胜数的繁忙城市中面临的最大规模现实挑战。
本周，优步在伦敦推出15辆由人工智能驱动的福特野马Mach-E自动驾驶汽车。该项目是与英国科技公司Wayve的合作项目。
截至目前，车辆上必须配备一名监管人员，因为伦敦监管机构仍不允许道路上实现完全自动驾驶。虽然这些自动驾驶出租车可以在伦敦境内任意行驶，但目前尚无法前往机场。
肯德尔谈到了Wayve和优步在这座部分道路拥有数百年历史的城市开发过程中遇到的一些挑战。
“这里有大量环岛和交互场景，骑行者和行人的数量是旧金山等城市的10倍以上，”肯德尔说道。“道路工程的数量也是其10倍多，所以这是一个始终繁忙且不断变化的城市。”
除优步外，Wayve的投资方还包括英伟达和微软。其主要竞争对手谷歌母公司Alphabet旗下的Waymo一直在用其车辆对伦敦进行地图测绘，但尚未将车辆投入公共使用。
在今年早些时候接受《60分钟》采访时，肯德尔解释说，Wayve的人工智能与Waymo的不同之处在于，它无需在驾驶前先绘制城市地图。
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“我们通过全球各地数百万小时的驾驶经验对其进行训练，”肯德尔当时说道。“这意味着当它前往从未见过或尚未绘制地图的地方时，它能够识别眼前的事物并实时做出决策。”
据肯德尔介绍，Wayve已在欧洲、亚洲和北美的500多个城市开展了车辆驾驶测试。
“这种多样性水平需要一个能够学习概念并将其应用于从未见过的事物的系统，而这正是我们用人工智能打造的成果，”肯德尔说道。
我们以比标准优步车费高出20%的价格叫了一辆优步自动驾驶出租车，并对人工智能系统进行了测试。
车辆起初处于自动驾驶状态，但当试图通过一条狭窄通道时，最终卡住了，监管人员不得不接手驾驶。
对于不想当“业余骑手”的乘客来说，伦敦著名的黑色出租车司机具备这座城市的必备行车知识。但据伦敦交通局的统计数据显示，近年来黑色出租车司机的数量已从2010年的约2.5万人降至如今的约1.6万人。
当被问及自动驾驶出租车是否会对黑色出租车司机构成威胁时，优步全球自动驾驶出行与配送主管萨尔弗拉兹·马雷迪亚表示，他认为短期内不会。
“不会，我们确实不认为这是近期的风险，”马雷迪亚告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻。“现实情况是市场在增长。我们认为自动驾驶汽车将有助于承接市场增长的部分需求。”
Uber robotaxis hit London’s streets, but with humans still behind the wheel
September 5, 2026 / 10:00 PM EDT / CBS News
Robotaxis are on the roads of London, marking Uber’s biggest real-world challenge yet in a busy city built on a dense layout and countless roundabouts.
This week, Uber rolled out 15 autonomous Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles in London powered by artificial intelligence. The project is a partnership with British technology company Wayve.
As of now, a supervisor must be on board the vehicle because London regulators still do not allow full autonomy on the roads yet. And while the robotaxis can travel anywhere within London, they cannot yet make trips to the airport.
Kendall noted some of the challenges that Wayve and Uber faced in the development process in a city with some roads that are hundreds of years old.
“There’s many roundabouts, interaction scenarios, there’s more than 10 times more cyclists and pedestrians than you can see in cities like San Francisco,” Kendall said. “More than 10 times the amount of roadwork, so it’s just a constantly busy and evolving city.”
Wayve’s investor base, along with Uber, also includes Nvidia and Microsoft. Its chief competitor, Waymo, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet, has been mapping London with its vehicles, but has not yet rolled them out for public use.
In an interview with “60 Minutes” earlier this year, Kendall explained that Wayve’s AI differs from that of Waymo in that it does not map out a city before driving it.
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“We train it on millions of hours of experience driving all around the world,” Kendall said at the time. “So this means when it goes somewhere it’s never seen before or that’s never been mapped, it can understand what’s in front of it and make decisions in real time.”
Wayve has driven its vehicles in more than 500 cities in Europe, Asia and North America, according to Kendall.
“That level of diversity, you need to have a system that can learn concepts, and apply them to things it hasn’t seen before, and that’s exactly what we’ve built with our AI,” Kendall said.
For 20% more than the standard Uber fare, a CBS News crew called an Uber robotaxi and put the AI to the test.
The vehicle operated autonomously at first, but when it tried to go through a narrow passageway, it eventually got stuck and the supervisor had to take over and drive.
For those who don’t want an amateur jockey, there are London’s famous black cab drivers who have required knowledge of the city. But their numbers have dropped in recent years, from about 25,000 in 2010, down to approximately 16,000 today, according to Transport for London statistics.
When asked if robotaxis pose a risk to black cab drivers, Sarfraz Maredia, Uber’s global head of autonomous mobility and delivery, said that in the short term, he doesn’t believe so.
“No, we don’t really see that as a near-term risk,” Maredia told CBS News. “So, the reality is the market is growing. And we think AVs are going to help take up some of the growth in the market.”
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