UK autonomous driving (AD) firm Wayve has raised $1.05bn from investors including computing firms Nvidia and Microsoft, which the company says "supports Wayve in fully developing and launching the first embodied AI products for production vehicles".
Wayve has been conducting trials of various levels of its autonomy software on UK roads since 2018 with its fleet of BEVs, and has signed partnerships with a handful UK retail delivery fleets. However, the company is yet to commercially launch its core software — which it calls the first "embodied AI", or AV2.0 — autonomous driving solution, and is still at a stage of improving its AI models.
"The company will also focus on scaling its foundation models, advancing embodied AI research, and building an industry-leading AV2.0 platform with reliable simulation, measurement, and active learning tools for automotive applications," Wayve says.
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"Finally, funds will enable Wayve to expand operations and partnerships in new markets, building geographically diverse data assets and attracting global talent," the company adds.
Efforts towards Level 4 and above AD is split into two technology camps, with most players opting for sensor-based Lidar systems. But BEV sales leader Tesla is attempting L4 autonomy with only the use of cameras to read the car's surroundings.
Wayve aims to differentiate itself by incorporating a flexible suite of sensors, which the company says "implicitly learns to balance the strengths and weaknesses of sensors" in various configurations. As such, the company calls its technology "hardware agnostic", but says it is still trying to design an "optimal sensor suite".
"Since the start we have held a contrarian belief that end-to-end AI will make autonomy possible. I am excited about this massive endorsement of our vision and the opportunity to launch our first embodied AI product for automotive," says Wayve CEO Alex Kendall.
High level autonomy is capital intensive due to the need for supercomputing at large scales. But the funding agreement will see Wayve gain access to Microsoft's supercomputing and cloud computing capabilities. Nvidia microchips are also in demand across the autonomy industry, with Tesla also relying on significant amounts of Nvidia hardware for its Full Self Driving software.
Securing the backing of Nvidia and Microsoft, two AI and computing heavyweights, is a vote of confidence in the potential of Wayve's approach to autonomy. Funding is also provided by Japanese investment firm Softbank, which now takes a seat on Wayve's board.
Ciaran has written about finance, politics and culture. He is passionate about e-mobility and what it means for our way of life.
Ciaran has a Masters in Ancient Philosophy from Oxford University.
