WAYMO: Is this the way to go, Mo? Petition launched reflecting concerns over experimental 'robo-taxis' in Harlesden

 

Cllr Krupa Sheth and Cllr Muhammed Butt pose at Waymo's Park Royal HQ

An incident in Harlesden when an experimental autonomous vehicle drove through a police crime scene accidentally revealed a scheme that has been foisted on Brent with little or no consultation with residents raising fears of another Lime Bikes type debacle.

Brent Council was clearly very pleased with itself according to a public relations post:

 

Brent Council wrote, 'We know that new technology brings new questions as well as new possibilities, which is why early engagement matters.' 

 The robo-car drives through the crime scene

 

Now Green Party council candidate, Amandine Alexandre, has launched a new petition addressed to the London Mayor raising pertinent concerns.

Harlesden says no to Waymo LINK

We petition the Mayor of London to:

• Implement an immediate moratorium on the expansion of the Waymo pilot until a transparent safety audit is completed.

 

• Publish a full log of all safety breaches, "near misses", and traffic violations involving autonomous vehicles in London to date.

Why is this important?

Over the last few weeks, American company WAYMO has been testing autonomous vehicles in Harlesden and across London. On 22 April, a WAYMO vehicle drove through a live police cordon on Harlesden High Street while officers were investigating a double stabbing.


We, the undersigned, call on the Mayor of London and Transport for London (TfL) to immediately suspend the trial and roll out of Waymo autonomous vehicles on London’s streets. We further request a police investigation into near misses and other incidents where public safety was at risk. 

REASONS FOR THIS PETITION

The current rollout of Waymo autonomous vehicles (AVs) across London, and specifically within the Harlesden area, is proceeding without adequate democratic oversight or proven safety protocols for complex urban environments. Our concerns are based on the following:

1. Breach of Police Cordons: Footage has emerged of a Waymo vehicle in Harlesden breaching a live police line. Such actions constitute "wilful obstruction" of the police. If a driver of a regular vehicle had committed this act, they would likely be under investigation and could face criminal prosecution. We cannot allow a "two-tier" justice system where corporate AI is exempt from the laws that govern Londoners.

2. Unresolved Safety Risks: Autonomous vehicles are struggling to navigate the "edge cases" of London’s busy streets, including responding to emergency sirens, physical police barriers, and the unpredictable movements of pedestrians and cyclists in high-density areas like Harlesden.

3. Lack of Community Consent: Residents in Brent have not been adequately consulted on this trial. Public streets are being treated as a laboratory for unproven technology without a clear framework for liability when things go wrong.

4. Extra traffic on our roads: if Waymo or any other autonomous vehicles are allowed on the streets of London, that will lead to extra traffic on our roads. It will further compromise the Mayor of London's traffic reduction aims, led by Sadiq Khan, focus on reducing overall traffic volumes by 10-15% by 2041 and cutting car kilometres by 27% by 2030 to meet Net Zero and health targets. We need more accessible and affordable public transport, instead of more cars on our roads.

5. Vision Zero Compromise : The Mayor’s "Vision Zero" strategy aims to eliminate road danger. Introducing vehicles that fail to recognise and respect police cordons is a direct contradiction of this safety goal.

SIGN THE PETITION HERE

 

 Sky News reported on April 14th 2026: 

Autonomous taxis are now driving themselves around London streets, the American company behind the technology has announced.

The self-driving cars have been in the capital since last autumn, but until now, they were under the manual control of "safety drivers".

Now, Waymo says, they’re being controlled by artificial intelligence, albeit with a human sitting in the driver’s seat just in case.

 

With concerns increasing over the the loss of jobs to   artifical intelligence, such as that used in robo-taxis, it is ironic that Labour Brent is promoting a project that will threaten  the jobs of local taxi, minicab and Uber drivers.

 

Published and promoted by James Paton on behlf of Brent Green Party and its 2026 council candidates c/o 23 Saltcroft Close, Wembley, HA9 9JJ 

Brent Council to trial use of artificial intelligence in helping to answer residents' complaints

 

A question from Cllr Jayanti Patel, who is shaping up as one of the more incisive members of the Scrutiny Committee, elicited the revelation that the Council has a pilot project using artificial intelligence to assist in answering complaints from residents.

Its use would be part of the council's digital transformation programme where residents will be expected to go on-line as much as possible, athough Muhammed Butt assured residents that telephone, email and calling into the Civic Centre would still be possible.

 

The committee were told by a senior officer:

As part of the Digital Strategy we are looking at AI, There are a number of ethical issues around all of it. Our first venture isto the AI world is to pilot the development of an AI tool that will take a complaint,  read the complaint, investigate all of the systems to draw out all the information about that complaint, and then compose a response tht is empathetic, that answers all the questions and would meet all of what we expect to be a good standard of response.

That would not just go off to the individual [complainant]. It would go to an officer to double check that the information is accurate and correct.

We should have the first prototype built by the end of the month. It is an AI product that would connect to our systems and we are doing it in a very controlled way. If it works it would be deployed in July 2024 at some point.

Cllr Tatler chimed in to say that AI is still very new and Brent was one of the first councils to make sure  that ethics was built around it:

There are still a lot of unknowns and we don't want to lose the human element of how we deal with residents, so it is absolutely right that we do this bit by bit rather than go full swing into digital systems.