Self-driving startup Wayve is reportedly preparing to make its commercial debut.
The U.K. company will introduce its driver-assistance system in partnership with global car companies in the U.S. and Germany ‘in the near term,’ CEO Alex Kendall said in an interview with Bloomberg News on March 10.
Kendall declined to provide a specific timeline or disclose which automakers the company would collaborate with, according to the report.
Bloomberg noted that Wayve has released new data indicating that its AI-powered software can adjust to U.S. driving behaviors more quickly and cost-effectively than other methods, achieving performance comparable to the U.K. standard with only 500 hours of U.S.-specific data collected over eight weeks.
‘What we see is it’s just exponentially more efficient with each new market we go to,’ Kendall stated. ‘Five hundred hours to generalize to California is remarkable, and we observed that even less was required for our launch in Germany.’
The announcement comes as several self-driving car companies prepare to begin offering services. For instance, Google-backed Waymo recently started providing driverless ride services on the Uber app.
Both Waymo and Lyft are getting ready to debut their self-driving services in Atlanta later this year, while Tesla is preparing to roll out robotaxis in Austin in June.
Wayve’s strategy, as noted by Bloomberg, has been to sell its software to car manufacturers rather than market directly to consumers.
‘Major manufacturers are producing cars and millions of units of volume today that have the hardware needed for the software,’ Kendall explained. ‘We are ready to go and we’re excited to see the benefits realized around the world.’
The company formed a partnership last year with Uber, whereby the latter agreed to deploy self-driving vehicles powered by Wayve’s software on its platform in various markets globally.
Observers are continuing to speculate whether robotaxis signify the beginning of a new wave of autonomous and self-driving innovations.
‘Despite the optimism surrounding robotaxis, the road to full autonomy has been challenging. The development of self-driving technology is a complex and costly endeavor, requiring advancements in AI, sensor technology, and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication,’ the report stated. While firms like Waymo have secured milestones — such as the launch of a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in select locations — these services remain limited in scope and geography.
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