{"id":34974,"date":"2026-02-25T22:23:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T03:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/02\/25\/not-even-potholes-will-hold-up-self-driving-cars-uk-firm-predicts\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T22:23:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T03:23:18","slug":"not-even-potholes-will-hold-up-self-driving-cars-uk-firm-predicts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/02\/25\/not-even-potholes-will-hold-up-self-driving-cars-uk-firm-predicts\/","title":{"rendered":"Not even potholes will hold up self-driving cars, UK firm predicts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Richard Morris<\/span>Technology reporter<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Reuters<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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British self-driving startup Wayve has said it is confident its technology will allow autonomous vehicles to “really drive anywhere”, including on the UK’s sometimes pothole-blighted roads.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The firm has raised an additional $1.5bn (\u00a31.1bn) from investors, including Microsoft and chip giant Nvidia – one of the largest ever funding rounds for a British company.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It comes as Wayve prepares to launch robotaxis in London later this year as part of a partnership Uber.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Its boss said he was confident autonomous vehicles would soon be on the roads in many other locations too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“We’ve taken it throughout Wales, Scotland, rural parts of England and the complexities of driving it through central London”, Alex Kendall told Today, on BBC Radio 4.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Asked if cars equipped with its tech would have a problem with hazards such as potholes he replied “not at all”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“The AI has the intelligence to drive on roads, the same ones as you and I, just drive within the environment that we have today,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Wayve was founded in 2017, developing AI in vehicles which learns from the environment by processing data from sensors, rather than relying on pre-mapped routes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A rare example of a British tech company which is among the market leaders in its field, Wayve nonetheless faces strong competition from rivals including Waymo. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Another US firm, Lyft, is also due to launch in the UK in partnership with Chinese firm Baidu.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Kendall, the co-founder and chief executive of Wayve said training an AI to drive in London was a “different driving experience than the grid-like streets and wide boulevards you get in the United States”, where they have been on the roads on a trial basis for some time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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China has also been allowing autonomous vehicles in some cities for a number of years. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Kendall said eventually everywhere would follow suit, predicting “all cars will be autonomous in the future”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The new investment values the London-based business at around $8.6 bn (\u00a36.4bn).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Rachel Harris, Supervising Associate at Simmons & Simmons said that showed “investors believe autonomous driving technology is reaching commercial maturity”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She added there were still potential roadblocks ahead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“The critical question is whether regulation can keep pace,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But she suggested if they could be overcome “the UK is well positioned to be not just a centre of autonomous vehicle innovation, but a global leader in regulation”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Richard MorrisTechnology reporter Reuters British self-driving startup Wayve has said it is confident its technology will allow autonomous vehicles to “really drive anywhere”, including on the UK’s sometimes pothole-blighted roads. The firm has raised an additional $1.5bn (\u00a31.1bn) from investors, including Microsoft and chip giant Nvidia – one of the largest ever funding rounds for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,21,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-market","category-news","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}