UK Startup 'Wayve' Gets $1 Billion Funding For Self-Driving Car Tech

Wayve, a UK-based AI firm focused on developing self-driving car technology, has secured a record $1.05 billion in funding, with Microsoft and Nvidia participating in the round led by SoftBank. According to the BBC, this investment is the largest for an AI company in Europe. The BBC reports: Wayve says the funding will allow it to help build the autonomous cars of the future. [...] Wayve is developing technology intended to power future self-driving vehicles by using what it calls "embodied AI." Unlike AI models carrying out cognitive or generative tasks such as answering questions or creating pictures, this new technology interacts with and learns from real-world surroundings and environments. "[The investment] sends a crucial signal to the market of the strength of the UK's AI ecosystem, and we look forward to watching more AI companies here thrive and scale," said Wayve head Alex Kendall.

"Embodied AI" definition...

[OneOfMany07]

"Embodied AI is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that allows robots to learn through interaction with the physical environment. It integrates machine learning, computer vision, robot learning, and language technologies, resulting in robots that can perceive, act, and collaborate."

So roughly what I'd thought when I read the term, but I wasn't sure. Wonder if it's using the NVIDIA metaverse technology? Where they simulate physical environments and let AI learn from it ahead of time, versus a real robo

Re:

[AlanObject]

Thanks for the precis. I think I'll wait until something significant comes out of them.

What I'll be looking for is to see what they think they can do that Tesla can't. I got the FSD demo (didn't buy it when I got the car) and it is impressive in how it can perceive the world around it. I'm not that thrilled with its driving style, which is akin to an over-stimulated teenager who hasn't learned yet how much pressure to put on the controls. But it does get you there and through some tricky traffic.

not enough

[Crenor]

Tesla is doing 10 Billion THIS YEAR just for AI compute. Then include the 6mil cars getting training data - growing each year. Then add the top talent on the planet., not only making their own training chips, but compute chips as well.. It is a VERY high cost to entry at this point - just to catch up. Then you would need to be way ABOVE Tesla's spend to beat them... Just licence it, way cheaper, already an option (Tesla stated they are already in talks to do this with an existing OEM)