Self-Driving AI Company Testing Tech in the US

British self-driving AI company Wayve is expanding its American operations.

The London-based start-up has announced it is launching a testing program in San Francisco.

At the same time, it has also confirmed it is opening an office in Sunnyvale, California, to support the program and help develop local partnerships.

The testing will constitute the first time the firm has conducted on-road trials outside the United Kingdom, and according to Wayve is an “important step” in its efforts to develop AI capable of enabling driver assistance tech and autonomous functionality for vehicles.

Wayve’s approach to automation is centered around the idea of what it calls “Embodied AI.” This concept is described by the company as an integration of “advanced AI into vehicles and robots to transform how machines interact with, comprehend and learn from human behavior in real-world environments.”

This end-to-end AI systems differs from the ‘rules-based’ tech that is limited to specific geofenced areas used by most of the leading self-driving taxi operators presently.

Wayve’s arrival on San Francisco’s roads will be cautious in scope initially. The company says it will focus on developing Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) rather than fully driverless solutions.

Related:Wayve Raises $1B for AI to Power Self-Driving Cars

As such, a small fleet of Ford Mustang Mach-Es fitted with Wayve’s tech, all with human test drivers, will be let loose in the city and the Bay Area, all the time collecting data that will be used to help build the foundation for scalable driving software that can operate in diverse conditions across the world.

The team based in the new Sunnyvale office will focus on software development, hardware integration – Wayve’s tech is hardware-agnostic – and also overseeing and analyzing operations in San Francisco.

Alex Kendall, co-founder and CEO of Wayve, hailed the expansion as a “major milestone” for the company. Kendall said: “We are now testing our AI software in real-world environments across two continents. 

“After years of pioneering a data-driven mapless AI Driver that can generalize across different vehicles and cities in the U.K., we are excited to bring this technology to the U.S. San Francisco’s unique driving conditions offer rich data insights that will be crucial in further developing a global AI platform for automotive customers.”

The company has been testing in London for some time, where it famously gave Bill Gates an opportunity to see the capabilities of its tech at close quarters.

Wayve has gathered significant momentum over the past few months, attracting a series C investment round of $1.05 billion led by Japan’s SoftBank, with other backers including Microsoft and Nvidia.
It also announced it was pairing up with Uber in an effort to develop AI-powered self-driving vehicles that could eventually be used on the ride-hailing platform.

Related:Uber to Develop Self-Driving Cars With AI Company