London-based Wayve, a developer of Embodied AI technology for automated driving, announced on Monday, that it has announced a new strategic partnership with Uber.
Consequently, Uber has also agreed to make a strategic investment in Wayve as an extension of the company’s previously announced Series C fundraising round.
In May, the UK company raised $1.05B funding in a Series C round led by SoftBank Group, with participation from NVIDIA and Microsoft.
With additional funding from Uber, the UK company will enhance consumer vehicles with Level 2+ advanced driver assistance and Level 3 automated driving capabilities, and work on developing globally scalable Level 4 autonomous vehicles for future deployment with Uber.
Unlike traditional AV approaches, Wayve focuses on mapless end-to-end AI technology that enables automated vehicles to operate without geofenced limits.
The partnership intends to integrate Wayve-powered self-driving vehicles into the Uber network, reaching over 150M monthly global users.
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber says, “Uber and Wayve share a vision of reimagining mobility for the better. Wayve’s advanced Embodied AI approach holds a ton of promise as we work towards a world where modern vehicles are shared, electric, and autonomous. We’re thrilled to bring Wayve on as a partner to work alongside automakers as we continue to build out Uber as the best network for self-driving vehicles.”
Wayve: Enabling vehicles to perceive and navigate any environment
Founded in 2017, Wayve is a developer of Embodied AI technology for automated driving.
The Embodied AI technology developed by the company will allow autonomous vehicles and other applications to coexist safely with humans, enabling individuals to concentrate on what truly matters in their daily lives.
The UK company was the first to develop and test an end-to-end (e2e) AI autonomous driving system on public roads.
The company has developed foundation models for driving autonomy, similar to GPT, that empower vehicles to drive safely through diverse environments.
The company is developing mapless and hardware-agnostic Embodied AI products for automakers and fleet owners, accelerating the path from assisted to automated driving.
The company also developed a suite of innovative technologies, such as fleet learning, data infrastructure, evaluation, and simulation platforms designed to rapidly enhance their AI models using real-world and simulated data.
The company will also focus on scaling its foundation models, advancing Embodied AI research, and building the AV2.0 Platform with reliable simulation, measurement, and active learning tools for automotive applications.
The company has conducted trials on UK public roads since 2018 and partnered with UK delivery fleets from Asda and Ocado Group.
Alex Kendall, Co-founder and CEO of Wayve says, “Wayve is building a ‘general purpose’ driving Al that can power all levels of driving automation in any type of vehicle, anywhere in the world. I’m excited to be teaming up with Uber, the largest mobility network in the world, to massively ramp up our AI’s fleet learning, ensuring our AV technology is safe and ready for global deployment across Uber’s network. Together, we’re excited to work with Automotive OEMs to bring autonomous driving technologies to consumers sooner.”
01
These are the top UK-based PR agencies for startups and scale-ups in 2025