Uber takes stake in SoftBank-backed self-driving tech startup Wayve

LONDON — Uber and British artificial intelligence startup Wayve announced a partnership Thursday that will see the two firms collaborate on autonomous driving technology.

As part of the deal, Uber is also investing an undisclosed amount into Wayve for a minority stake, the companies said in a statement. The investment is an extension of Wayve’s $1 billion Series C funding round announced earlier this year, which was led by Japanese tech investor SoftBank.

U.S. chipmaker Nvidia and software giant Microsoft also invested in Wayve’s Series C.

“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,” Alex Kendall, Wayve’s co-founder and CEO, said in the statement.

He said that, together with Uber, Wayve is “excited to work with Automotive OEMs [original equipment makers] to bring autonomous driving technologies to consumers sooner.”

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi added that the two companies “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,” Khosrowshahi said.

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 automated driving capabilities,” according to the statement.

Wayve’s AV2.0 product is an end-to-end AI solution that allows automakers to equip existing vehicles with Level 2+ advanced driver assistance and Level 3 and 4 automated driving capabilities.

Different levels of vehicle autonomy are determined by SAE International, a global standards body for the mobility engineering industry.

In the future, Uber intends to launch self-driving vehicles on its app equipped with Wayve’s tech, the companies said.

Previously, Uber had its own self-driving car unit, but it sold the division in 2020 to Aurora Technologies, an Amazon-backed self-driving car firm. As part of that deal, Uber said it would invest $400 million into Aurora.

The ride-sharing giant recently announced a similar tie-up with Cruise, a General Motors-backed autonomous driving startup, to offer driverless rides on its ride-hailing network.

Uber has also offered rides in vehicles operated by Waymo, the Google self-driving spinoff, as part of a commercial tie-up. In 2019, Waymo announced a similar partnership with Lyft, a competitor to Uber.