Is this the week that London becomes a fully plugged-in and autonomous future city? Is our capital, founded by the Romans, designed by Wren and Nash, Foster and Rogers, mechanised by the Victorians, finally having its sci-fi moment — driverless cabs on the streets, just like the robot-piloted “Johnny Cabs” in Arnie’s Total Recall movie, and flying drone taxis, like the airborne “Metrokabs” ridden by Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, strafing the London skyline?

In Westminster, Uber has been offering preview test fares in its fleet of autonomous, AI-equipped Wayve robotaxis. Despite Uber’s TfL-granted private-hire licences still requiring a qualified driver to be present on each journey and remain responsible for the car at all times, customer interest is sky-high — more than 100,000 London residents have already signed up for the Uber Wayve waiting list.

The excitement is overhead too. Just last month, California-based Joby Aviation brought its all-electric air taxi to Tower Bridge, providing a close-up preview of the aircraft that could transform short-distance travel over London and across the UK.

The plan is for the aircraft to operate on an Uber-esque, on-demand air-taxi format, allowing up to four passengers to book door-to door rideshare flights to airports and out-of-town destinations at the swipe of an app. Joby’s large electric drone promises to cruise at speeds of up to 200mph, with a range of 100 miles. Take off and landing is vertical — Blade Runner style.

The robotaxi trials and the Joby sky cab reveal are part of the Mayor’s grand Transport for London “Vision Zero” strategy, which aims to eliminate all deaths and serious injuries from road collisions by 2041, and a wider world vision for a “triple-zero” urban environment — zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion. The future — safe, fast, silent — is getting closer… albeit very slowly, with some serious delays. Mostly across central London.

Turns out our city is mapped more for sprawling obfuscation, not neat and tidy source coding. For knowledge, not artificial intelligence. Its narrow and twisty streets are criss-crossed, zig-zagging and labyrinthine, all dead ends, bus lanes, bollards, traffic furniture, major digs, one-way systems, cul-de-sacs, cobbled mews and, at Hyde Park Corner, an insane, lane-less free-for-all — and certainly no orderly, easily programmable grid system.

Read More: Robotaxis hit London: Can driverless cabs master the capital’s chaos?