Wayve’s self-driving tech is headed to US cars made by Stellantis

Stellantis, the parent company of popular brands such as Jeep and Ram, has announced a groundbreaking partnership with the self-driving technology startup Wayve. This collaboration aims to introduce hands-free driving capabilities to Stellantis vehicles by the year 2028, as revealed during Stellantis' recent investor day event at their North American headquarters in Michigan. This marks Wayve's second major partnership with an automaker, following a significant $1.2 billion Series D funding round that attracted high-profile investors including Nissan, Stellantis, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Uber. While the specifics of the partnership's financial terms and which Stellantis models will feature Wayve's autonomous driving software remain undisclosed, CEO Alex Kendall emphasized that this is a commercial agreement intended to supply the technology at scale. The initial focus of this partnership will be the North American market, which narrows down Stellantis' diverse lineup of 14 brands, including Chrysler and Dodge. Kendall highlighted the vast potential of working with Stellantis due to the company's extensive global reach and product diversity. He stated, "One of the amazing things about Stellantis is the global, massive scale they operate at, and the diversity of products they offer. Our AI is so adaptable; it can generalize to the variety of products they sell, accommodating different vehicle sizes, shapes, and driving styles across various geographies." By 2028, Stellantis plans to broaden its market presence in North America with the introduction of 11 new vehicles by 2030, as part of a $70 billion restructuring initiative. Among these, seven vehicles are expected to be priced under $40,000, and two under $30,000, although it remains uncertain if Wayve’s technology will be integrated into these more affordable models. Wayve has developed a self-driving system that does not rely on specific sensors, chips, or high-definition maps, making it an attractive option for cost-conscious automakers. Instead, their software operates on a unique end-to-end neural network that utilizes data from any sensors present on the vehicle to guide its driving capabilities. Additionally, Wayve's technology is compatible with the existing chips used by its automotive partners. The startup is marketing two main products: a hands-off assisted driving system that parallels Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system, and a fully autonomous solution intended for robotaxis and passenger vehicles. For Stellantis, they will implement the hands-off, eyes-on system, which was rapidly prototyped in just two months. Kendall reported that engineers had the vehicle operational within weeks using their AI-based system. He noted, "What we’ve been able to show is that we’ve built a version of FSD that is genuinely designed to generalize across different computational environments, sensor types, and vehicle forms."