British self-driving AI car firm wins record funding

London: Britain s tech start up Wayve on Tuesday announced a record $1.05 billion fundraising led by Japan s SoftBank to develop artificial intelligen...

London: Britain's tech start-up Wayve on Tuesday announced a record $1.05-billion fundraising led by Japan's SoftBank to develop artificial intelligence systems for autonomous vehicles.

Wayve, which was founded in 2017 as a pioneer of vehicle-embedded AI, has also secured some of the cash from US technology titan Microsoft and semiconductor giant Nvidia, it said in a statement.

The deal is the largest fundraising to date among European startups at the forefront of AI development, according to data provider Dealroom.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hailed Wayve's announcement as the largest investment ever made in a UK company in the AI sector.

Wayve's technology, called Embodied AI, allows self-driving cars to learn from and react to real-world environments, unlike traditional systems that rely on pre-programmed maps.