1st Self-Driving Vehicles on Streets of UK — Can You Name the Company?

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Self-driving vehicles are on the streets of London, but do you know which company is leading the way? Is it Waymo? Apollo Go? Tesla?

No, the company ahead of others over there is Wayve. Wayve was founded 8 years ago in London and is operating self-driving Ford Mustang Mach-E electric crossovers in the city now. The company is a spinoff of the University of Cambridge and seems to be approaching the challenge in much the same way Elon Musk’s Tesla does. “Wayve approach eschews detailed 3D maps and hand-coded rules in favor of a self-learning ‘AI driver’ that learns from camera data and driving experience. The London-headquartered startup has garnered significant attention and funding for its vision-based method, raising over $1.3 billion from investors including SoftBank, Microsoft, Nvidia, and others.” That’s $1.3 billion from notable investors.

Here’s more on its maneuvering around London from the UK outlet Autocar: “The Wayve Ford Mustang Mach-E has been cruising successfully hands-free through north London traffic for about 40 minutes and now faces a tough test: an unprotected right turn into a busy street. A parked black cab spoils the view on the left while the usual broad spectrum of London vehicular traffic dashes on by, not giving an inch. But the Ford behaves remarkably humanly, creeping out until it spots a gap and then nips into the flow without drama.”

Wayve isn’t yet providing commercial service in London, and Waymo is on the way. Does Wayve have a chance? Its approach is much more similar to what Tesla is doing, but Tesla will be coming as well — with millions or billions of more miles logged on the open road. Also, Wayve isn’t actually looking to operate robotaxis itself. “It just wants to sell its AI Driver software to anyone willing to integrate it into a vehicle,” Autocar writes. Hmm…. Does it actually have an avenue to drive into?

We’ll see if Wayve lasts long or gets squeezed out of the market. What do you think will happen? $1.3 billion from major tech giants or not, I am struggling to see where it can fit into the market. If the approach it uses is a good one, it seems like Tesla would dominate. If more sensors are needed, there’s Waymo, Apollo Go, and others. But maybe Wayve does have the magic sauce in its software that will make it stand out from the rest.