Let's put aside the Tesla vs. Waymo debate and talk about Wayve. The UK-based startup, founded in 2017, is yet another company that has autonomous-driving technology ambitions, but it's not building a robotaxi platform like Waymo. Nor is it a car or robotics manufacturer like Tesla.Wayve’s goal is to develop a highly capable Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) that it can license to other automakers. Think a flexible version of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) that can be plugged into any automaker’s cars.
The startup is working on fully driverless systems, but it also sees an untapped market in licensing supervised self-driving technology.
I tried a demo of an ADAS system powered by Wayve’s AV2.0 AI driver in San Francisco, taking a nearly hourlong ride inside a Ford Mustang Mach-E. The car was retrofitted with five cameras, a radar, and Wayve’s AI driver.
Two Wayve spokespeople joined me for the ride to answer questions I had about the technology, along with a “vehicle safety operator” who was behind the wheel in case he had to intervene during the ride.In some ways, it reminded me of a Tesla robotaxi, a ride-hailing service that — in SF — operates with a safety monitor behind the wheel.
My experience with Wayve didn’t diminish my impression of Tesla’s FSD. However, it did raise questions: How much of the advantage that Tesla claims — from complete software ownership to the billions of miles of driving data it says it has on hand — ultimately matters in developing a competent, assisted driving system? How long will it take for Wayve to catch up? And, if Wayve does, could Tesla truly corner the ADAS market if it’s still only thinking about licensing its software?A Tesla spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
This contrasts nicely with Musk’s idea that other manufacturers will “naturally” want to license from him: