British driverless car champion Wayve is planning to put its cars on the streets of San Francisco, challenging US tech giants including Elon Musk’s Tesla and Google’s Waymo in their own backyard.
The self-driving car company, which last month raised over $1bn (£780m) for its technology, is laying the groundwork for deploying its fleet in the US, hiring staff to coordinate its test drivers and safety operators.
A Wayve spokesman confirmed the company would soon be putting cars on US roads: “We will be doing data collection in the US to prepare for Level 2 ADAS [advanced driver assistance system] testing in the future.”
At so-called “Level 2” autonomous driving, its cars require a human being to be ready to take control, but they can drive hands-free in many situations.
The UK business is hoping to sell its self-driving software to carmakers and ultimately offer technology that does not need any intervention from a human.
Wayve, led by chief executive Alex Kendall, has already trialled its technology on UK roads, undertaking test drives in modified Jaguar i-Pace electric cars with a safety driver, using artificial intelligence (AI) to guide the vehicles. It cannot currently operate its cars without a safety driver in Britain.
Yet its US expansion would mark a rare example of a British start-up taking on Silicon Valley behemoths on their home turf. Driverless car companies including Waymo, which is owned by Google-parent company Alphabet, have tested driverless cars on US roads for years.
However, the tech giants have suffered a series of setbacks to their domestic expansion after a run of accidents involving their vehicles.
The US highways regulator has launched a series of investigations into Waymo, alleging that several incidents “involved collisions with clearly visible objects that a competent driver would be expected to avoid”.
Waymo, which offers robotaxi services without safety drivers in Arizona and California, has said it is “proud” of its safety record.
Meanwhile Cruise, part of US carmaker GM, suspended its operations in the US in November after a pedestrian was trapped under one of its vehicles. Its operations restarted last month.
Mr Musk’s Tesla offers self-driving features on its electric cars and is planning its own robotaxi service, but is currently facing a string of investigations by US regulators and the Justice Department over its technology’s capabilities.
In a job listing, Wayve said it was hiring staff who would be responsible for “supervising and directing a team of drivers and safety operators, and overseasing on-road experimentation and development” based out of Mountain View in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In May, Wayve announced the UK’s biggest ever investment in an AI business, raising over $1bn from investors including SoftBank, Microsoft and chipmaker Nvidia. Wayve, whose other backers include Sir Richard Branson, said it would use the funding to expand internationally.
Last year, the company lobbied for ministers to pass the Automated Vehicles Bill, which should pave the way for bringing more advanced self-driving car technology to Britain without the need for a human.
Rishi Sunak hailed the investment as a “testament to our leadership in this industry”.
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