Microsoft (MSFT) and Nvidia (NVDA) backed British autonomous driving startup Wayve has claimed that it is close to signing its first deals with auto manufacturers.
European Makers Keen to Start Motoring
The London-based group, which raised over $1 billion in backing from investors including the U.S. tech giants and Japan’s SoftBank last May, and gained further investment from Uber Technologies ($Uber) last August, told the Financial Times that it was revving up its international expansion drive.
This includes testing self-driving cars in both Germany and the U.S. with Japan said to be next in the queue. Chief executive Alex Kendall told the FT that it hoped to also “soon” clinch its first deal with manufacturers. Indeed, he said he has had exploratory talks with almost every auto manufacturer there is. Regarding those talks, Kendall said that he had noted an increased urgency in recent months, particularly from some European businesses, to start discussions over the move to autonomous driving. This was because they did not want to be left behind by U.S. and Chinese rivals.
U.S. and Chinese Competition
Wayve develops Embodied AI software for cars and helps smooth the transition between assisted and autonomous driving. It operates, reported the FT, on a single AI model regardless where the vehicle is deployed. The autonomous driving market, say some reports, could be worth as much as $133 billion by as soon as 2030. That is despite a raft of challenges getting the technology up and running over the last decade.
In many ways Wayve is Europe’s best competitive hope in this space taking on the likes of Tesla (TSLA) and Chinese makers such as BYD(BYDDY), Baidu, WeRide and Pony.ai. Wayve also has Waymo, owned by Alphabet (GOOGL) in its sights. Kendall told the FT that he was confident that Wayve would be able to offer similar robotaxi capabilities but crucially at a fraction of the cost.
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