Autonomous driving startup Wayve has announced plans for a new site in Germany, as the company steps up global expansion in a bid to secure its first commercial deals following a record $1bn round in 2024.
The London-based autonomous vehicles (AV) startup will open a new testing and development hub in the Stuttgart region, the company said on Monday, with plans to expand into Japan, the home market of its biggest backer, SoftBank.
“2025 is a year of global expansion for Wayve,” said cofounder and CEO Alex Kendall. “With its rich automotive heritage and deep engineering expertise, Germany is a perfect place to accelerate the development and deployment of AI-powered driving technology.”
Wayve raised a $1bn Series C — featuring SoftBank, Microsoft and Nvidia — in May last year and is now stepping up efforts to ink revenue-generating partnerships as it looks to justify that cheque.
The company is yet to announce any commercial deals with automakers, but told the Financial Times it hopes to sign its first “soon”.
The Germany move places it “ideally for collaboration with the region’s leading manufacturers and engineering talent”, Wayve said in a statement.
“Germany’s diverse and demanding driving environment — ranging from high-speed Autobahns to urban complexity and winter road conditions — provides an ideal setting to refine and validate Wayve's AI-powered driving technology,” the company said.
Global expansion
Founded in 2017, Wayve is building AI software and foundation models for autonomous driving. The startup is developing tech it hopes will allow AVs to learn while driving — instead of having to precisely map out every inch of road. Wayve says it began testing on public roads in the UK in 2018 and the US in 2024.
The company shifted focus from developing fully autonomous vehicles a few years ago to developing autonomous driving features that can be built into cars, which it sees as revenue-generating more quickly. It began fleet testing in Germany in February this year after obtaining regulatory approvals in the country.
The new site will focus on building Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) features like lane change assistance, and provides access to a strong pool of engineering talent, the company said.
There are five levels of autonomous driving, from cruise control at level one to fully self-driving cars at level five. Wayve’s current AI driving system delivers level two autonomy, meaning functions still require active monitoring by a human behind the wheel.
While Europe is seen as lagging behind the US in terms of pro autonomous driving regulation — where AV companies like Waymo and Tesla already have vehicles on the roads — Germany is a leader in the region. The country passed laws in 2021 allowing level four vehicles on designated public roads.
The Germany expansion follows Wayve beginning testing in Silicon Valley in October last year, and the company is planning to drive up the west coast to Vancouver, where it has an R&D office.
There have been mixed signals emerging from the AV industry in recent months. While Tesla has said that it hopes to begin building self-driving taxis next year and Waymo raised a $5.6bn round in October, General Motors shut down its Cruise robotaxi in December — after pumping more than $10bn into it since 2016.
