Wayve, a British company specialising in artificial intelligence (AI) technology for self-driving vehicles,
has secured a record $1.05 billion in funding, making it the largest investment in a European AI enterprise to date. This significant financial boost comes from a funding round led by investment giant SoftBank, with major contributions from Microsoft and leading chip-maker Nvidia.
The company is working on creating “embodied AI” which differs from traditional AI by interacting with
and learning from real world environments rather than being limited to performing cognitive or generative tasks. The new funds will be put into the development of autonomous driving technologies.
Alex Kendall, the head of Wayve, echoed the sentiment, highlighting the investment as a crucial indicator of the UK’s robust AI ecosystem’s potential for fostering more thriving AI enterprises.
The development of autonomous vehicle technology is a key element of what the UK government
describes as an impending “transport revolution”. The former UK Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, noted in November that self-driving vehicles might be operational on some UK roads by 2026.
The forthcoming Automated Vehicles Bill, expected to pass through Parliament soon, aims to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework ensuring the safe use of autonomous and assistive driving features on UK roads.
However, the path to adopting self-driving technology is not without its challenges. In the US, the safety
of AI-powered assistive driving features is under scrutiny following several fatal crashes. The National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is currently investigating Ford’s BlueCruise driving
technology, with Tesla also facing probes over the safety of its Autopilot system.
