Wayve, a British unicorn developing the next generation of AI-powered self-driving vehicles has announced a new strategic partnership with mobility major Uber. As part of the deal, Uber is making a strategic investment of an undisclosed amount into Wayve for a minority stake, the companies said in a press release. The investment is an extension of Wayve’s $1 billion Series C funding round announced earlier this year, which was led by Japanese tech investor SoftBank.
With the additional funding and support from Uber, Wayve intends to accelerate its work with global OEMs to enhance consumer vehicles with Level 2+ advanced driver assistance and Level 3 automated driving capabilities, while also working towards the development of globally scalable Level 4 autonomous vehicles for future deployment on Uber.
Alex Kendall, Co-founder and CEO of Wayve said, “Wayve is building a ‘general purpose’ driving Al that can power all levels of driving automation in any type of vehicle, anywhere in the world. I’m excited to be teaming up with Uber, the largest mobility network in the world, to massively ramp up our AI’s fleet learning, ensuring our AV technology is safe and ready for global deployment across Uber’s network. Together, we’re excited to work with Automotive OEMs to bring autonomous driving technologies to consumers sooner.”
Founded in 2017 by Alex Kendall and Amar Shah, Wayve now is shifting from traditional AV approaches, and has a focus on mapless end-to-end AI technology, designed to allow automated vehicles to operate without geofenced limits. In the future, Wayve-powered self-driving cars will be available on the Uber network in multiple markets around the world, bringing Wayve’s leading technology to Uber’s 150 million monthly global users.
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber added, “Uber and Wayve share a vision of reimagining mobility for the better. Wayve’s advanced Embodied AI approach holds a ton of promise as we work towards a world where modern vehicles are shared, electric and autonomous. We’re thrilled to bring Wayve on as a partner to work alongside automakers as we continue to build out Uber as the best network for self-driving vehicles.”
Wayve’s mission is to reimagine mobility with embodied intelligence, backed by top investors such as SoftBank Group, NVIDIA, and Eclipse Ventures.
