(SeaPRwire) –   “Well, it’s not starting. This is awkward.” 

Wayve CEO Alex Kendall is tapping the touch screen in a Ford Mustang Mach-E, attempting to persuade his company’s multi-billion dollar software to give us a tour of San Jose. An assistant leans through the passenger window, performs a quick reset, and a map loads on the display. After navigating past a line of cones blocking an Nvidia GTC conference area, Kendall presses start. The car moves into the lane with a gentle acceleration, pushing us back into our seats as it sets off.

In self-driving technology, as with other AI fields, being an early leader carries significant weight. Securing an initial customer base enables data collection that enhances the product, creating a momentum that can help established players dominate. Waymo runs a fleet of 3,000 robotaxis across ten U.S. cities, generating annualized revenue exceeding $350 million as of January. Tesla has more than six million vehicles gathering data for its Full Self-Driving system.

Wayve is the challenger. Valued at $8.6 billion in February, the London startup’s worth was announced shortly after Waymo—launched from Google in 2016—was valued at $126 billion. Kendall remains undeterred. He states that their creation represents a fundamental departure from the technology seen operating in cities like Shanghai or San Francisco, a subtle reference to Waymo and Chinese rivals such as Pony.ai and WeRide. Still, the startup has not demonstrated its capabilities in a large-scale rollout.

Wayve aims to deliver partial automation—where the car drives itself but a human must stay attentive at the wheel—to nearly any modern vehicle. Kendall notes that the auto industry is now manufacturing cars with the necessary sensors and hardware at a scale of millions, ideal for deploying an AI like theirs. He gestures to the console guiding us smoothly through traffic. The strategy is that broad deployment of its partially autonomous AI will generate the data needed to eventually create a fully autonomous system.

By focusing on partial autonomy, Wayve can utilize inexpensive, commonly available hardware already enabling features like adaptive cruise control and automatic emergency braking in many vehicles. Kendall says the cameras and computing chips in the Ford Mustang Mach-E amount to a few hundred dollars. He emphasizes that the goal is to make this technology accessible for any car.

This appears to give Wayve a notable advantage over Waymo’s purpose-built robotaxis, which industry estimates say use 13 cameras, six radars, four LiDAR units, and cost tens of thousands of dollars. However, the comparison isn’t direct: for full, driverless autonomy, Wayve would also require additional sensors.

Should Wayve successfully deploy its software, its reach could quickly become global. During a 2025 test, the company completed a 1.45 million-kilometer “road trip” across 500 international cities, many never before driven, using only standard navigation maps. In contrast, a Waymo spokesperson said the company develops detailed base maps for each new operational zone, a process taking “weeks,” though its vehicles can also handle unmapped areas like construction sites.

Kendall argues that Wayve’s adaptability to different cars and regions unlocks markets its rivals have not yet accessed. The consumer car market is valued at approximately $2 trillion, ten times larger than the taxi market where Waymo operates. Tesla, which also develops partial automation software, does not license its system to other automakers. Kendall identifies licensing technology to any fleet or manufacturer as the greatest opportunity. He predicts that by the 2030s, consumer demand for cars without hands-off, eyes-off driving capability will approach zero.

Through investor Uber, Wayve intends to launch rides with safety drivers in London and Tokyo in 2026. These operations will gather data to train its AI and develop “world models”—simulated environments used by Wayve and Waymo to test AI responses to new scenarios. Anastasis Germanidis, co-CEO of world model creator Runway ML, states that data collection is robotics’ primary bottleneck, being very costly and time-intensive.

However, some of Wayve’s competitive edges are diminishing. Waymo’s newest vehicle uses 42% fewer sensors than its predecessor, challenging Wayve’s narrative on hardware cost disparity. Potentially more worrying for Wayve are Waymo’s steps to move beyond robotaxis into the personal vehicle market. In April 2025, Waymo signed a preliminary agreement with Toyota aimed at speeding up the development and deployment of autonomous driving technologies.

The San Jose demonstration ride proceeds smoothly, as intended. A standout moment is a well-executed maneuver to set up a turn. “A really nice lane change. Just popping up behind the bus so we can make this right turn,” Kendall comments quietly. He explains that increased deployments create a virtuous cycle: more vehicles mean more experience, leading to better system performance and broader applications. Naturally, he acknowledges, this principle applies to his competitors as well.