Wayve's approach to autonomous driving is similar to Tesla's, but it plans to sell its model to a variety of car manufacturers, potentially gaining more training data to improve its model. The company's product, known as "Embodied AI", will also be distributed to robotics companies serving manufacturers in various industries. Wayve's research on multimodal and generative models, known as LINGO and GAIA, will offer language-responsive interfaces, personalized driving styles, and co-piloting.
Key takeaways:
- UK-based startup Wayve has raised $1.05 billion in a Series C funding round led by SoftBank Group, marking the largest AI fundraise in the UK and one of the top 20 globally. Other participants included NVIDIA and Microsoft.
- Wayve's autonomous driving system is self-learning rather than rule-based, and the company plans to use the new funding to develop its product for assisted and fully automated driving, as well as other AI-assisted automotive applications.
- The company's approach is similar to Tesla's, but it plans to sell its autonomous driving model to a variety of auto manufacturers, potentially gathering more training data than Tesla, which relies on car sales for data.
- Wayve's technology, which it calls "Embodied AI", will also be distributed to robotics companies, allowing the platform to learn from human behavior in a variety of real-world environments. The company's research on multimodal and generative models will offer language-responsive interfaces, personalized driving styles, and co-piloting.