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From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n
Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRead more<\/span><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nBritish self-driving car firm Wayve has secured a significant $1.5 billion (\u00a31.1 billion) in funding, including major backing from Uber, Microsoft, and chip giant Nvidia, as it prepares to launch robotaxis on UK roads.<\/p>\n
The bulk of this capital, $1.2 billion dollars (\u00a3890 million) stems from a Series D funding round, one of the largest ever for a British start\u2212up.<\/p>\n
This round, which values Wayve at $8.6 billion (\u00a36.4 billion), saw participation from institutional investors and car makers, including Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and Stellantis. Uber’s additional investment specifically targets its driverless taxi services.<\/p>\n
The funding arrives as Wayve prepares to roll out commercial robotaxi trials in London later this year, in partnership with ride-hailing platform Uber. <\/p>\n
The company aims for a full commercial launch in the city by 2026, with ambitions to integrate its “supervised autonomy software” into consumer vehicles from 2027.<\/p>\n
Wayve’s innovative technology relies on artificial intelligence models that learn to drive by analysing video content, driving data, and recognising complex patterns.<\/p>\n
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open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>Alex Kendall, co-founder and CEO of Wayve, says the company aims for a full commercial launch in the city by 2026, with ambitions to integrate its \u2018supervised autonomy software\u2019 into consumer vehicles from 2027 (AP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nUS rival Waymo has also revealed plans to make its driverless private hire vehicles available in London from next year.<\/p>\n
Wayve\u2019s fresh funding round was led by investors Eclipse, Balderton and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and also saw new investment from Ontario Teachers\u2019 Pension Plan, Baillie Gifford, British Business Bank, Icehouse Ventures, Schroders Capital and other institutional investors.<\/p>\n
Bosses said the investment will accelerate Wayve\u2019s plans to launch its technology into commercial vehicles.<\/p>\n
Alex Kendall, co-founder and chief executive of Wayve, said: \u201cWith 1.5 billion dollars secured, we are building for a total addressable market that spans every vehicle that moves.<\/p>\n
\u201cAutonomy will not scale through city-by-city robotaxi deployments alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will scale through a trusted platform that automakers and fleets can deploy globally and improve continuously.\u201d<\/p>\n
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open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>The funding arrives as Wayve prepares to roll out commercial robotaxi trials in London later this year, in partnership with ride-hailing platform Uber (AP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nUber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said: \u201cWe are very proud to continue to deepen our partnership with Wayve, with plans to deploy together in more than 10 markets around the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWayve\u2019s powerful end-to-end approach is purpose-built for scale, safety and effectiveness, and we\u2019re excited to work with them across multiple OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and geographies, which we\u2019ll share more about soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: \u201cWayve is a powerful example of the strength, ambition and potential of Britain\u2019s innovative firms.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis fund raise demonstrates the international confidence in our brilliant AI sector and reaffirms Britain\u2019s position as the leading scale-up ecosystem in Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will continue to create the conditions for world-leading firms like Wayve to start, grow and scale, creating great jobs and opportunities for people in every corner of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference. Read more British self-driving car firm Wayve has secured a significant $1.5 billion (\u00a31.1 billion) in funding, including major backing from Uber, Microsoft, and chip giant Nvidia, as it prepares to launch robotaxis on UK roads. The bulk of this capital, $1.2 billion dollars (\u00a3890 million) stems from a Series D funding round, one of the largest ever for a British start\u2212up. This round, which values Wayve at $8.6 billion (\u00a36.4 billion), saw participation from institutional investors and car makers, including Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and Stellantis. Uber’s additional investment specifically targets its driverless taxi services. The funding arrives as Wayve prepares to roll out commercial robotaxi trials in London later this year, in partnership with ride-hailing platform Uber. The company aims for a full commercial launch in the city by 2026, with ambitions to integrate its “supervised autonomy software” into consumer vehicles from 2027. Wayve’s innovative technology relies on artificial intelligence models …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12486"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}