UK autonomous driving company Wayve expands into Germany with a new hub.

      British autonomous driving startup Wayve is planning to set up a testing and development center in Germany as it gears up to launch self-driving vehicles in Europe’s largest automotive market.

      The new hub will be located near Stuttgart, a city known for major car manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Audi. Alex Kendall, the co-founder and CEO of Wayve, described it as the "ideal location" for enhancing the development and testing of AI-driven driving technology.

      “2025 marks a year of global growth for Wayve, and we are thrilled to start operations in Germany,” Kendall stated.

      Wayve is currently testing its technology in both the UK and the US. The new testing facility in Baden-Württemberg will focus on improving its Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) features, like lane change assistance, and furthering its automated driving technology. Additionally, the site provides access to Germany’s extensive pool of software engineering talent, which is essential for the company's development initiatives.

      Founded in Cambridge in 2017, Wayve equips a standard vehicle with various cameras and sensors that analyze the surrounding environment. This information is processed by Wayve’s so-called “embodied AI” system.

      Unlike many other self-driving AI models that need to be trained for each potential driving scenario and are restricted to geofenced areas, Wayve’s AI is more capable of acting independently and learning autonomously. The more the AI "drives," the more proficient it becomes at reacting to dangers.

      Wayve's approach to autonomous driving is akin to that of Tesla. However, in contrast to Elon Musk's company, Wayve plans to sell its technology directly to automotive manufacturers. This means that access to advanced self-driving technology won't be limited to purchasing a Tesla.

      “I am eager to collaborate with Germany’s leading manufacturers and Tier 1 suppliers to deliver safe, scalable, and production-ready AI software to vehicles globally,” Kendall remarked.

      This announcement comes after Wayve raised $1 billion in May—the largest single investment ever made in a European AI startup. The Series C round was led by SoftBank, along with major technology companies like Nvidia and Microsoft.

      “Wayve is a critically important company for Europe,” stated Suranga Chandratillake, a partner at Balderton and an early investor in Wayve, during an interview with TNW at that time.

      “Embodied AI is poised to be the next significant frontier of artificial intelligence—integrating machine intelligence into the physical world around us, rather than being limited to the computer screens that large language models currently occupy.”

      This approach has also garnered interest in the US, where, in August, Wayve received a "strategic investment" from Uber, which is incorporating autonomous driving technology into its taxi fleet.