A revolution in taxi and passenger transport.
Why build a new taxi company at all? Because the old model has real problems, for passengers and for drivers, and much of it runs in the shadows. Here's what the evidence says, and what we're doing about it.
A quarter of road deaths involve alcohol
Why every ETIOCA car has an online alcohol interlock.
Cars & coverUnchecked cars, uninsured rides
Crashes, uninsured trips and missing vehicle cards.
Shadow industryWho is really driving?
Rented accounts and unchecked drivers. At ETIOCA there's no account to rent.
JobsRobotaxis remove the driver. We're hiring them.
Self-driving pilots begin in England. We are building 100,000 driving jobs.
Passenger safetySafety in the back seat
What police and operator figures show, and why a wall and a camera matter.
Driver safetyDrivers deserve protection too
Four in ten drivers report physical violence. Our drivers work behind a wall.
Fair workFrom gig to profession
Britain's highest court said drivers are workers. We pay them like it.
Road safetySober, steady and within the limit
Alcohol interlocks and speed limiters, as standard in every car.
AccessibilityOnly 2% of private-hire cars take a wheelchair
Every ETIOCA car does.
SupplyLondon's black cab gap
Fewer cabs, fewer drivers, long waits. Britain needs new capacity.
ImpactService that feeds children
Why our impact grows with the quality of our service.
Who is really driving? Too often, nobody knows.
In 2025, researchers found around 80 Facebook groups where ride-hailing and delivery accounts are bought, sold and rented. One of them, "UBER ACCOUNT FOR RENT WORLDWIDE", had more than 22,000 members. A rented account lets someone who never passed any check drive paying passengers under another person's name. In 2019, London's regulator found that unauthorised drivers had uploaded their photos to other drivers' accounts and made at least 14,000 trips.
At ETIOCA there is no account to rent. Every driver is hired, vetted and employed by us, drives a car we own, signs in to a car that knows who they are, and is monitored online, down to the alcohol sensor in the cabin.
Sources: CNN, April 2025 · Tech Transparency Project
A quarter of road deaths involve alcohol.
The European Commission estimates that around 25% of all road deaths in the EU are alcohol-related, roughly 10,000 lives every year, even though only about 1.5–2% of kilometres are driven over the legal limit. Excessive speed is one of the other main killers. The European Transport Safety Council has called for alcohol interlocks to be required for professional drivers.
We didn't wait to be told. Every ETIOCA car has an automatic alcohol sensor in the driver's cabin, connected to our servers and monitored live, plus an automatic speed limiter. You will never be driven by someone who has been drinking, or by someone racing to the next fare.
Sources: European Transport Safety Council · European Commission, road safety: alcohol · ETSC, drink driving in commercial transport
Unchecked cars, uninsured rides.
In Britain in 2023, taxis and private-hire cars accounted for 2,060 casualties in collisions involving people driving for work. In London, a private-hire driver who picks up a passenger from the street without a booking invalidates his own insurance. In the Netherlands, passengers of illegal "snorder" taxis are not insured at all. In Tallinn, 42 app taxis were found working without the vehicle card that proves a car may be used as a taxi.
Every ETIOCA car is ours: licensed, insured, inspected and serviced by us, checked before every shift, and cleaned and disinfected after every trip. You never have to wonder whether the car you're in is legal.
Sources: DfT, reported road casualties involving driving for work · TfL enforcement · ILT · ERR News
Robotaxis remove the driver. We're hiring them.
Britain passed the Automated Vehicles Act in 2024, creating a legal basis for self-driving vehicles. Pilots of self-driving taxis are being prepared from 2026, with London among the first cities, and in May 2026 applications opened for operators wanting to run self-driving passenger services. Early London trials still use a safety driver, and full approvals are a multi-step process.
We respect the technology. But the business case for a robotaxi is simple: take the driver out. Ours is the opposite. ETIOCA is built around people: more than 100,000 driving jobs planned from 2032, with guaranteed pay, holiday, pension and a free car. We believe a city is better served by a professional, well-paid human behind a protective wall than by an empty seat.
Sources: TaxiPoint · Autonomous Vehicle International · Tech Times
Safety in the back seat: what the numbers say.
In 2023, London's police recorded 204 sexual offences committed by taxi and private-hire drivers, or by people posing as them, against fare-paying passengers. Ten were rapes. In 2022 the figure was 222. In the United States, Uber's own safety report recorded 2,717 reports in its most serious categories of sexual assault and misconduct across 2021 and 2022.
The overwhelming majority of drivers are decent people. But these are not small numbers, and every one is a person who got into a car and did not arrive safely. That is why every ETIOCA car separates the driver's cabin from the passenger cabin with a solid wall, why cameras protect everyone on board, and why every journey is booked, tracked and driven by a vetted, employed professional.
Sources: Transport for London, taxi and private hire recorded crime figures 2023 · Uber, 2021–2022 US Safety Report
Drivers deserve protection too.
The danger runs both ways. In the 2024 National Taxi and Private Hire Driver Survey of nearly 1,500 UK drivers, 52.8% said they had been verbally abused by passengers and 40.9% said they had faced physical violence. Nearly nine in ten said more should be done to protect them.
An ETIOCA driver works in a protected cabin behind a solid wall, with cameras and a live connection to our operations centre. Fares are paid in the app or by card, so there's less cash in the car. A safer driver is a calmer driver, and a calmer driver gives a better ride.
Sources: TaxiPlus & TaxiPoint, National Taxi & Private Hire Driver Survey 2024
From gig to profession.
In February 2021, the UK Supreme Court ruled in Uber v Aslam that ride-hailing drivers are workers, entitled to the minimum wage and holiday pay. Yet many drivers still carry the cost of the car, the finance, the insurance and the repairs, and only earn when a fare comes in.
We start from the other end. ETIOCA drivers are paid £18 an hour, guaranteed, with holiday pay and a pension. The car, its insurance and its maintenance cost them nothing. Jobs are dispatched, so nobody wastes the day circling. It's a job you can build a life on.
Sober, steady and within the limit.
Europe's new vehicle safety rules have made intelligent speed assistance standard on new cars since July 2024, and require a standard interface so that alcohol interlocks can be fitted. ETIOCA goes further.
Every ETIOCA car has an automatic alcohol sensor in the driver's cabin, connected to our servers and monitored live, so our passengers are never driven by someone who has been drinking. Speed is limited automatically for town and open roads, and exceeding the limit by more than 10–15% is not possible. No racing, no reckless driving: just a calm, professional ride.
Source: Thatcham Research on the EU General Safety Regulation (EU) 2019/2144
Only 2% of private-hire cars take a wheelchair.
England has 342,300 licensed taxis and private-hire vehicles, according to the Department for Transport's April 2026 figures. Only about 34,500 of them are wheelchair accessible, and that number fell by 4% in two years even as the total fleet grew by 9%. Among private-hire vehicles, the fastest-growing part of the market, just 2% are accessible, and seven licensing areas in England have no wheelchair-accessible taxi or private-hire vehicle at all.
At ETIOCA accessibility isn't a special vehicle you wait an hour for. Every car has step-free boarding, a wide sliding door, an automatic ramp and a wheelchair place. Everyone gets in the same way.
Sources: GOV.UK, Taxi and private hire vehicle statistics, England: 2026 · TaxiPoint
London's black cab gap.
In August 2026 the maker of London's purpose-built black cab scaled production right back, with its next-generation model not due in the UK until the second half of 2027. Drivers and fleets report waits of around nine months for a new vehicle. Meanwhile the number of licensed taxi drivers in the capital has fallen from about 20,400 in 2020 to roughly 15,900, and around 1,300 older cabs are expected to leave the road within a year under age limits.
Britain doesn't just need a new app. It needs new, purpose-built, accessible vehicles, and the drivers to go with them. That's exactly what ETIOCA is building: our own fleet, designed for 20 hours a day, and more than 100,000 professional driving jobs.
Sources: The Telegraph, 8 August 2026 · TaxiPoint · Highways News
Service that feeds children.
Every ETIOCA car is planned to sponsor 21 children every month: one here in Britain and twenty in Sierra Leone and Morocco. The money comes from what the car earns beyond the fare: its screens, the mini-bar, the shop and the wallet.
That makes our impact depend on our service. The better we treat our drivers and passengers, the more people choose ETIOCA. More people means more rides, more advertising and more services, and so more children supported every month. Doing right by people is how we do right by children.
Figures are taken from the public sources linked under each article and were correct at the time of writing. ETIOCA features describe the production vehicle as designed.