In a historical event[1]British AI company Wayve announced a $1.05 billion investment to develop the next generation of AI-powered autonomous vehicles, marking the largest investment in an AI company in the UK. Backed by SoftBank Group, NVIDIA and Microsoft, Wayve will use this funding to launch the first technology in vehicles whose autonomy is purely articulated by AI.

This will enable autonomous vehicles to learn and interact with real environments, including the ability to navigate and learn from situations that do not follow strict patterns or rules, such as unexpected actions of drivers or pedestrians. This technology goes far beyond the capabilities of existing technology.

This investment confirms the UK’s position as a global leader in new industries. Founded in 2017, Wayve is a clear example of UK success, demonstrating UK leadership in creating favorable economic and regulatory conditions for growth startups in the AI ​​and autonomous vehicle sectors. Wayve co-founder and CEO Alex Kendall attributes this success to the support of the UK Parliament, which established a clear framework to support and promote the development of safe autonomous vehicle technology.

When I had the opportunity to read Alex’s doctoral thesis[2], surprised me with its clarity in explaining how deep learning and convolutional neural networks have become important tools for computer vision today. Alex presents architecture deep learning for problems such as scene understanding, camera position estimation, stereo vision, and semantic segmentation in videos, surpassing current traditional approaches.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hailed the achievement, highlighting the UK’s role at the forefront of technological progress, from the first light bulb to AI and autonomous vehicles. “I am very proud that Wayve, a British company, has secured the largest investment in an AI startup in the UKSunak said.

The regulatory framework, which is close to being passed by Parliament, will provide a comprehensive legal framework for the safe deployment of autonomous vehicles, ensuring that they pass rigorous testing before traveling on UK roads and setting out clear legal responsibilities when vehicles are driving autonomously . . This announcement strengthens the UK’s commitment to innovation and global leadership in AI and autonomous vehicles, attracting major investment and paving the way for a safer, more innovative and more exciting transport future.

As can be read in the note, the British government’s desire is explicitly emphasized so that entrepreneurs do not face radical legislation that seeks to regulate the development of AI in all sectors, as happened in Europe, the Europe of old.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/gov/news/vote-of-confidence-in-uk-economy-as-british-ai-company-wayve-secures-over-1-billion-to-develop-ai- for driverless vehicles

[2] https://sanjeevg15.github.io/media/papers/alex_kendall_phd_thesis_compressed.pdf