Uber has invested in Wayve because the ride-sharing giant is positioning itself to profit when (or if?) autonomous vehicles finally become mainstream.
The undisclosed investment is an extension of Wayve's massive $1 billion funding round announced in May. As part of the deal, Uber acquired a minority stake in the London-based self-driving car startup.
“Wayve’s advanced approach to embodied AI shows great promise as we work toward a world where modern vehicles are shared, electric and autonomous,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber.
Founded in Cambridge in 2017, Wayve equips conventional cars with a series of cameras and sensors that interpret the environment. This data is fed into what Wayve calls its “embodied AI” system.
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Unlike many other self-driving AI models that need to be trained for every possible driving scenario and are bound by geofenced boundaries, Wayve's AI can operate more freely and learn on its own. The more the AI ”drives,” the better it can react to dangers.
Level 4 autonomous driving
Uber will integrate Wayve's autonomous technology into personal vehicles “to enable a range of automated driving features,” it said in a statement. This integration will start at the low end of the autonomy spectrum and slowly ramp up to Level 4 self-driving cars.
Vehicles in this category are so capable of driving themselves that they technically don't need a driver at all. However, there are often geographical restrictions on where this self-driving technology can be used, so drivers are still needed. Level 4 vehicles are also often limited in their top speed and can only go faster when under human control.
“Wayve is developing a universal driving AI that can enable all levels of driving automation in any vehicle type, anywhere in the world,” said Alex Kendall, co-founder and CEO of Wayve.
Wayve will equip existing vehicles with Level 2+ driver assistance systems and then Level 3 and 4 automated driving features. Uber eventually intends to launch self-driving vehicles on its app equipped with Wayve's technology. Exactly when that will happen depends largely on regulation.
Even as the overvalued autonomous vehicle market struggles with a funding slump following some high-profile accidents, Uber is aggressively trying to become the ride-sharing platform for people who want to try out self-driving cars.
The San Francisco-based company announced a similar collaboration with U.S. autonomous driving startup Cruise last week. Uber also offers rides in vehicles operated by Waymo, a Google autonomous driving spin-off.
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