Driverless cars take black cabs’ charging bays

London’s taxi drivers have clashed with driverless car company Waymo after its vehicles were found taking up electric charging bays reserved for black cabs.

Taxi groups said there had been multiple cases of Waymo’s electric vehicles using dedicated e-taxi points, leading to intervention by Transport for London (TfL).

Industry representatives said that taxi drivers had resorted to cancelling the self-driving cars’ charging sessions.

Steve McNamara, of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, said he was aware of a handful of incidents and claimed that in at least one case a taxi driver had pressed a cancel button on the charge point.

“I share the frustration. It’s the equivalent of me parking cabs on petrol pumps and saying you can’t go to work,” he said.

Waymo, a spin-off from Google recently valued at $126bn (£92bn), is testing its driverless cars in London before launching services to the public later in the year.

The plans are seen as the latest challenge to London’s highly regulated black cab industry, which has strict barriers to entry such as requiring drivers to memorise the capital’s streets.

The United Cabbies Group said it had reported Waymo to TfL twice in the last two weeks, in response to a driver who shared a photo of a car charging in Paddington, west London.

TfL told the group: “The company has been very apologetic and has taken some robust action. It has also put in place some further, practical measures to prevent these vehicles using taxi-dedicated points.”

Waymo said it had raised the issue with Moove, the operations company whose workers operate its robocar fleet.

“We take our responsibility to be a good member of London’s transport network very seriously, and we apologise to the taxi drivers whose charging needs were temporarily disrupted,” the company said.

“We’re aware of two instances of this issue and have been in close communication with TfL about each. We raised this with our driving operations partner, who assured us they implemented strict policies to address this human error.”

London has around 70 rapid charging bays reserved for electric taxis, which travel up to 200 miles on a daily shift.

Penalty charge notices have previously been issued to car owners, such as minicab drivers who use dedicated taxi points.

Around two thirds of the 13,869 licensed taxis in London are zero-emission capable, according to TfL statistics.

Waymo is operating a fleet of modified electric Jaguar I-Pace vehicles in London, using human safety drivers, as it tests its technology in the capital.

The company plans to launch rides to the public as soon as September. It has said that prices will be “competitive”.