Wayve CEO and co-founder Alex Kendall.
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london – Uber and Wayve, a British artificial intelligence startup, announced a partnership on Thursday that will see the two companies collaborate on autonomous driving technology.
As part of the deal, Uber will also invest an undisclosed minority stake in Wayve, the companies said in statements. The investment is an extension of Wayve’s $1 billion Series C round announced earlier this year, which was led by Japanese tech investors Softbank.
American chip maker NVIDIA and software giants Microsoft Also invested in Wayve’s Series C financing.
“Wayve is building a ‘universal’ driving AI that can power all levels of driving automation for any type of vehicle, anywhere in the world,” Wayve co-founder and CEO Alex Kendall said in a statement.
He said that Wayve, together with Uber, is “pleased to work with automotive OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to bring self-driving technology to consumers faster.”
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi added that both companies “share a vision to reimagine mobility and make mobility better.”
“Wayve’s advanced approach to embedded artificial intelligence holds great promise as we strive to build a modern world of car sharing, electric and autonomous driving,” said Khosrowshahi.
The statement said that Uber will integrate Wayve’s AV2.0 technology (an algorithm-based product that enables vehicles to drive themselves using data from the physical environment) into consumer vehicles “to enable a range of autonomous driving functions.”
Wayve’s AV2.0 product is an end-to-end artificial intelligence solution that allows automakers to equip existing vehicles with Level 2+ advanced driver assistance and Level 3 and 4 autonomous driving capabilities.
The different levels of vehicle autonomy are defined by SAE International, the global standards body for the mobility engineering industry.
In the future, Uber plans to launch self-driving cars equipped with Wayve technology on its app, the companies said.
Previously, Uber had its own self-driving car unit, but it sold that unit to Amazon-backed self-driving car company Aurora Technologies in 2020. As part of the deal, Uber said it would invest $400 million in Aurora.
The ride-sharing giant recently announced a similar partnership with GM-backed self-driving startup Cruise to offer driverless rides on its ride-hailing network.
Uber As part of the business partnership, the company also offers rides in vehicles operated by Google’s self-driving spinoff Waymo. In 2019, Waymo announced a similar partnership with Uber rival Lyft.
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