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Wayve has developed a hardware-independent foundation model for autonomous driving. | Source: Wave
Wayve announced yesterday that it has closed a $1.05 billion Series C funding round. The London-based developer of body-based artificial intelligence (AI) for self-driving cars was founded in 2017. While most self-driving vehicles (AVs) work by mapping out large areas of the area they drive in, Wave uses deep learning technology to enable its cars to drive anywhere. . Wayve uses hundreds of millions of data samples from real-world and simulated driving to train its software.
SoftBank Group led the round, with participation from new investor NVIDIA and existing investor Microsoft.
“AI will revolutionize mobility. Vehicles will be able to interpret their surroundings in the same way humans do, enabling enhanced decision-making that promises higher safety standards,” SoftBank Investment Advisors said. said Kentaro Matsui, managing partner of SoftBank Group, head of new business office, and director of Wave. “The potential of this type of technology is transformative. It could eliminate 99% of road accidents. Advanced intelligence will redefine mobility and connectivity, contributing to a more convenient and safe society. SoftBank Group is pleased to be at the forefront of this effort with Wayve.”
Since its founding, Wayve has been developing and testing self-driving systems on public roads. The company is also developing a basic model for autonomous driving similar to GPT for driving, which will enable any vehicle to be aware of its surroundings and drive safely in a variety of environments.
Embodied AI will cause a paradigm shift, Wave says
Wayve believes that integrating embodied AI into vehicles and robots will lead to a paradigm shift in how machines interact with and learn from human behavior in real-world environments. The company says this innovation has the potential to improve the usability and safety of self-driving systems. This gives AVs the intelligence to confidently handle situations that don't follow strict patterns or rules, such as unexpected behavior by drivers, pedestrians, or environmental elements.
Alex Kendall, co-founder and CEO of Wayve, said: “Wayve's vision is not only to be realized in millions of vehicles, but also to seamlessly integrate into people's everyday lives and build trust in people. to develop self-driving technology that captures and unlocks extraordinary value.” He said. “This significant funding milestone underscores our team's unwavering belief that Embodied AI can address the longstanding challenges the industry has faced in scaling this technology to everyone, everywhere. doing.”
“Our collaboration with SoftBank, NVIDIA, and Microsoft will help us advance our mission to redefine driving with AI at the core. With this investment, we will develop our first Embedded AI product for the automotive industry. “This will enable OEMs to develop and launch new technologies to provide consumers with a reliable and rewarding self-driving experience.”
Wavye’s AI driving model enables mapless driving
Wayve says it has developed a hardware-independent AI driving model for mapless autonomous driving. In addition, we offer a suite of technologies, including fleet learning, data infrastructure, evaluation, and simulation platforms designed to power AI models using real-world and simulated data.
The company says that by leveraging advanced proprietary tools, OEMs and vehicle owners can generate valuable data assets that bridge the gap between raw data and unparalleled driving capabilities.
The company's research on multimodal and generative models, known as LINGO and GAIA, aims to propel the industry toward a future where automotive AI can deliver advanced capabilities. These include intuition, language-enabled interfaces, personalized driving styles, and CoPilot to enhance the self-driving experience.
Wayve made headlines last year when Bill Gates posted a video and blog post of him riding a Wayve AV. In his blog post, Gates seemed cautiously optimistic about his AV future. He predicted that the AV industry is likely to reach a tipping point between SAE Level 2 and 3 vehicles, vehicles that can only assist the driver with autonomous features, and vehicles that take control away from the driver. hand.
