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Britain Backs Autonomous Future as Government Signs MoU With AI Scale-Up Wayve

Prime Highlights

  • Business Secretary Peter Kyle said the partnership will accelerate self-driving technology while anchoring jobs, investment, and manufacturing firmly within the UK.
  • Wayve CEO Alex Kendall said the deal will create thousands of skilled jobs and deliver major road safety benefits as self-driving vehicles scale nationally.

Key Facts

  • Wayve is a UK-based AI company specialising in autonomous driving technology, with a track record of developing and trialling its systems on British roads.
  • The UK Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy has already secured over £360 billion in private investment and 120,000 jobs across key growth sectors since its publication.

Background

The UK government and Wayve have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding, where Wayve is a British company working on developing autonomous driving solutions through the use of artificial intelligence technology. The MOU between the two will help further cooperation in research areas that the government and industry share and will facilitate the proper use of the new automated vehicles in future.

This collaboration will help bridge the gap between research and manufacturing of the products and bring about investment opportunities, as well as create jobs. Business Secretary Peter Kyle said the government is backing high-growth British scale-ups through its Modern Industrial Strategy, turning world-leading research into real-world deployment while anchoring jobs, investment, and manufacturing in the UK.

The MoU outlines how the Department for Business and Trade and Wayve will collaborate on moving automated vehicles from the prototype stage to large-scale, commercially viable services on UK roads. This covers safety assurance, simulation at scale, and integration of full self-driving technology into production-ready vehicle platforms. Wayve will also share insights from real-world trials with government and regulators to support national rollout and inform future regulations.

Alex Kendall, Co-Founder and CEO of Wayve, said the partnership will anchor high-value manufacturing in the UK, create thousands of skilled jobs across the supply chain, and deliver transformative road safety benefits as self-driving vehicles scale. Science and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall described Wayve as a true British AI success story and said the agreement would secure high-skilled tech and advanced manufacturing jobs across the country.