Three companies stand behind the driver's seat in the Uber and Wayve cars. None has yet said who employs the person in it

Since 3 September, Uber customers in London have been able to ride in cars that drive themselves. Each of those cars has a person in the driver's seat. This desk set out to establish who that person works for.

Three companies are involved, and each holds a different part of the arrangement.

Uber holds the private hire operator licence from Transport for London. London requires three licences for any private hire trip, from the same authority: one for the operator, one for the vehicle and one for the driver. The vehicles received theirs in August.

Wayve builds the software that drives the car. Asked by this paper, it said on 9 September that for the London launch with Uber, "Otto Car will provide oversight of the trained Private Hire Drivers, not Wayve." It described the people in the seats as skilled and experienced drivers trained to support its technology, and said it does not publish salary information.

Otto Car is the third. This desk has not found it named in any coverage of the launch, including ours.

What the record shows about Otto Car

Otto Car Limited is company 08479726 at Companies House. It was incorporated in April 2013 as Premier Cab Repairs Limited and took its current name in December 2015. Its registered business activities are renting and leasing cars and light vehicles, and software development.

On its own website it describes itself as London's largest private hire car rental company. It says it partnered with Uber in 2019 on Uber's clean air plan, and that it has helped more than 20,000 drivers onto the road since 2015. It offers drivers plans to rent a car, or to rent towards owning one. The website does not mention Wayve or self-driving vehicles.

Its most recent accounts on file run to 31 March 2024, more than two years before the London service began. The next set, for the year to 31 March 2025, was due by 31 March 2026. Companies House lists them as overdue. This desk has put that to the company.

What nobody has said

Whether the person in the seat is employed by Otto Car, by Uber or by Wayve, or is a self-employed driver with an arrangement with one of them. What they are paid, or on what basis. Who records the moments when that person takes control from the machine.

This paper asked Uber the first of those on 7 September, along with what the work pays and whether takeovers are logged and published. We asked for a reply by 14 September. None has come. On 16 September we put similar questions to Otto Car, and we will publish its answer in full when it arrives.

Why the answer matters

Employment status decides what a person is owed. In 2021 the Supreme Court ruled that Uber's London drivers were workers, entitled to the minimum wage and paid holiday, whatever their written contracts said. Whether the people supervising these cars are employees, workers or self-employed decides whether that protection reaches them, and whether anyone owes them notice when the seat is no longer required.

The service runs on three licences. None of them says who employs the person in the seat.