Wayve, Uber Bring Robotaxi Rides to London
TL;DR
Self-driving startup Wayve is launching robotaxi rides with Uber in London, initially with safety drivers behind the wheel. CEO Alex Kendall discusses the path to fully driverless service, plans to expand with Uber to more global cities, and how Wayve’s end-to-end AI technology is designed to drive without relying on high-definition maps. He joins Ed Ludlow on "Bloomberg Tech. " (Source: Bloomberg).
Nauti's Take
Driving London without HD maps is the harder engineering path and makes Wayve's approach portable to new cities, a real advantage over map based systems. The catch is that safety drivers are still behind the wheel, so the unit economics do not work yet.
The moment worth watching is the first ride Uber releases with nobody in the driver seat.
Summary
Self-driving startup Wayve is launching robotaxi rides with Uber in London, initially with safety drivers behind the wheel. CEO Alex Kendall discusses the path to fully driverless service, plans to expand with Uber to more global cities, and how Wayve’s end-to-end AI technology is designed to drive without relying on high-definition maps.
He joins Ed Ludlow on "Bloomberg Tech. " (Source: Bloomberg)
Sources