Baidu, Lyft, and Freenow have commenced road testing of Baidu's Apollo Go RT6 robotaxis in London, with human test drivers aboard the vehicles. Dozens of RT6 units are now operating in the Brent borough as part of the initial testing phase, according to Engadget reporting published July 28, 2026, and a parallel announcement distributed via PR Newswire Engadget.

The commercial service, branded as "Freenow by Lyft," expects to open public ride reservations in 2027. Ahead of that public launch, Lyft and Freenow plan to begin handling passenger booking for the robotaxi service starting next year Engadget.

The deployment timeline depends on regulatory approval from Transport for London (TfL) and the UK government. The UK government is currently drafting autonomous vehicle rules and recently launched a robotaxi pilot program. Baidu's Q1 2026 financial results further indicated that Apollo Go is expected to begin testing in London with Uber, in addition to Lyft, and that the service is on track to commence open-road testing in Switzerland Baidu IR.

Lyft acquired Freenow, a German taxi company operating in the UK and Germany, to help deploy autonomous vehicles across Europe. An earlier partnership announcement from August 2025 outlined Lyft's plan to deploy Baidu Apollo Go's RT6 autonomous vehicles in Germany as an initial market alongside the United Kingdom starting in 2026 Lyft Blog. At that time, the UK government had fast-tracked its robotaxi timeline, aiming for initial services with paying passengers by spring 2026 Reuters.

The Baidu-Lyft-Freenow testing program enters a London autonomous vehicle landscape that is already hosting multiple parallel efforts. Waymo started testing its Jaguar I-Pace autonomous vehicles with human safety operators in London earlier in 2025. Uber and its self-driving partner Wayve are preparing to launch robotaxi trials in London and are allowing customers to sign up on an interest list Engadget.

The competitive density in London is notable. Waymo, Uber/Wayve, and now the Baidu-Lyft-Freenow consortium are all attempting to navigate a regulatory path that the UK government has been actively, if incrementally, constructing. The transition from fast-tracked targets for spring 2026 passenger services to the current reality of human-driven road tests suggests the regulatory and operational complexity of deploying autonomous fleets in a dense, legacy urban environment remains substantial. Transport for London's oversight will be a determining factor in how quickly any of these operators can move from test phases to fare-collecting services.

There is also a structural dimension to the Baidu, Lyft, and Freenow arrangement worth examining. Lyft's acquisition of Freenow provides a localized operational layer for fleet management and passenger booking across European markets. The fact that Baidu's Apollo Go is simultaneously pursuing testing arrangements with both Lyft and Uber in London indicates the autonomous vehicle platform is pursuing a multi-channel go-to-market strategy rather than exclusivity with a single ride-hailing provider. This mirrors the platform-agnostic deployment models seen in cloud infrastructure, where software providers seek to maximize deployment surface area across competing consumer-facing platforms.

The expansion of Apollo Go RT6 testing to London and Switzerland represents a meaningful extension of Baidu's autonomous driving operations beyond China. The RT6 platform, designed for robotaxi deployment, will face validation under European driving conditions, regulatory frameworks, and consumer expectations that differ from its domestic operating environment. The outcomes of these London road tests, particularly under TfL scrutiny, may establish precedent for how other autonomous platforms navigate UK regulatory approval in the months ahead.