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

Uberand 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 fundinground announced earlier this year، which was led by Japanese tech investorSoftBank.

Investing in Wayve

U.S. chipmakerNvidiaand software giantMicrosoftalso 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.

Uber's driving car unit

Previously، Uber had its own self-driving car unit، but itsold the divisionin 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 announced last week a similar tie-up with Cruise، a General Motors-backed autonomous driving startup، to offer driverless rides on its ride-hailing network.

Uberhas 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.