waymo

Waymo in London: What Every First Responder Needs to Know

Autonomous vehicles are coming to London's streets and by the end of 2026, Waymo's fully driverless ride-hailing service is expected to be carrying fare-paying passengers in the capital. That means blue light crews will encounter Waymo vehicles at incidents, on blue runs, and during everyday operations. The question isn't if, it's when, and whether your crews have the required information.

In the US, Waymo logged over 75,000 interactions with emergency service vehicles in a single 90-day period. The vast majority were routine, but when something more significant happens, knowing how the vehicle behaves and how to interact with it could save critical seconds.

Waymo's dedicated first responder engagement team has helped familiarise more than 35,000 emergency services personnel with Waymo's technology in the U.S. Waymo's team is at The Blue Light Show specifically to work with UK emergency services ahead of the London launch. This lunch and learn is your opportunity to get ahead of the technology before it becomes operational.

Register your interest for your free lunch 

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You'll leave knowing:

  • How a Waymo vehicle detects and responds to emergency vehicles, blue lights, and sirens

  • What happens if a Waymo is involved in an incident and how to interact with it safely
  • How to reach Waymo rider support and what they can do in real time
  • What the rollout timeline looks like for London, and what that means for your service

Speakers include

Lauren Rofe

Lauren is the Strategy and Business Operations lead for Waymo in the UK, where she's involved in all aspects of the company's UK launch. She is passionate about building and scaling businesses that deliver genuine innovation and impact.


Before joining Waymo in 2025, Lauren was COO at the health and social care marketplace start-up, Florence. There, she led the operations function and partnered with executive and technical teams to craft long-term business strategy and build operations teams.

Graham Ellis

Graham served in the London Fire Brigade for 35 years, retiring as Assistant Commissioner with responsibility for Special Operations. Graham subsequently worked to deliver a National Testing and Exercising Programme with UK Home Office -  Homeland Security Group.

Graham’s current role sees him leading a small team to ensure that London and the UK's Emergency Services are best informed and prepared for the rollout of the Waymo programme.

Piet van Os

Head of Enterprise Resilience for Waymo. In this capacity, he serves as the strategic architect of the company’s global resilience framework, overseeing the end-to-end coordination and response to complex, off-nominal events. Under his leadership, Waymo has pioneered industry-leading public safety outreach, successfully training over 40,000 first responders worldwide to ensure the safe integration of autonomous technology into the public sphere. A recognized authority in the autonomous vehicle (AV) space, Piet is a key voice in shaping international standards for incident management and emergency response protocols.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Marine Engineering and Marine Transportation from the California Maritime Academy.