The UK Government’s Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has announced the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Wayve that will see both parties strive to put the country at the forefront of next generation self-driving technology.
The MoU will seek to deepen collaboration on self-driving technologies, as well as back the scale-up as autonomous driving continues to grow within Britain.
Acting as a catalyst for new investment, skilled jobs and long-term growth across the UK automotive ecosystem, the partnership will link AI research with real-world deployment and manufacturing.
Alex Kendall, Co-Founder and CEO, Wayve said:I’m delighted to deepen our collaboration with the Department for Business and Trade. We share the Government’s ambition to drive economic growth through the development of the self-driving vehicle sector in the UK and globally.
Strengthening domestic capabilities will anchor high-value manufacturing in the UK, create thousands of skilled jobs across the supply chain, and support the future of the automotive industry. This is in addition to the transformative benefits to road safety to be gained from self-driving vehicles deployed at scale.
Wayve has a proud history of developing our technology in the UK. We look forward to working with DBT on a shared set of priorities to ensure the UK continues to lead and that the full set of benefits is realised across the country.
The MoU will will set out how the DBT and Wayve will collaborate on research that helps to transition automated vehicles from the prototype stage to large-scale, commercially viable services operating across the UK. This will include work on safety assurance, simulation at scale and the integration of full self‑driving technology into production‑ready vehicle platforms
It will also seek to reinforce the UK’s wider ambition to become a global hub for automated vehicle manufacturing, strengthening domestic supply chains.
As part of the agreement, Wayve will share insights from real-world trials with government and regulators in an effort to support learning and progress a national roll-out of self-driving services whilst informing future regulations and standards.
