Wayve, a London-basedstartupworking on AI systems for autonomous vehicles, has raised $1bn.
The colossal funding round marks the largest single investment in a European AI startup.
Japanese conglomerate SoftBank led the funding round alongside tech giantsNvidiaand Microsoft.
Wayve did not disclose its valuation following the investment.
Founded in Cambridge in 2017, Wayve is developing so-called embodied AI systems forself-drivingcars.
Unlike pure software AI like ChatGPT, embodied AI serves as the brain for physical objects like vehicles.
It lets them see, think, and drive on their own.
The technology also works for robots, or any other moving object for that matter.
Wayves approach to autonomous driving is similar to Teslas.
But unlike Elon Musks firm, Wayve will sell its technology directly to carmakers.
This means you wont have to buy aTeslato access top spec self-driving tech.
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Cars that learn
Wayve has been training its AI systems on UK roads since 2018.
The company fits a regular car with a range of cameras and sensors that interpret the surrounding environment.
The moredataa car collects, the more Wayves AI models learn about driving and responding to hazards.
In the future, the company plans to enable vehicles to do more than just drive for you.
Theywantto provide extras like language-responsive interfaces, personalised driving styles, and co-piloting.
As part of the investment, SoftBank has joined Wayves board of directors.
Despite significant progress, self-driving has always seemed to be one of those five-years-away technologies.
Getting autonomous vehicles to drive safely is notoriously complicated and faces stiff regulation.
However, Wayve has yet to name names so were still in the dark on that front.
Story bySion Geschwindt
Sion is a freelance science and technology reporter, specialising in climate and energy.
