Wayve launches new AI lab British autonomous driving company Wayve is moving into a new phase of AI development, announcing the launch of a new research unit called “Wayve Labs” to expand its research beyond self-driving cars into broader areas related to robotics and intelligent systems capable of interacting with the real world. In this article: British autonomous driving company Wayve is moving into a new phase of AI development, announcing the launch of a new research unit called “Wayve Labs” to expand its research beyond self-driving cars into broader areas related to robotics and intelligent systems capable of interacting with the real world. The move comes as the AI sector undergoes a rapid shift toward so-called ”embodied intelligence” — systems that can understand their environment, make decisions, and interact with physical elements autonomously. Betting on embodied intelligence The new lab is led by Jamie Shotton, Wayve's chief scientist and a former Microsoft executive. The team focuses on developing models that understand motion, space, causal relationships, and risk, while enabling intelligent systems to learn from the outcomes of their actions in real-world environments. The company believes the expertise it has accumulated over years of developing autonomous driving technology can form the foundation for broader applications, including industrial robotics, logistics, and autonomous systems operating outside vehicles. From roads to robots Wayve is globally known for developing a different approach to autonomous driving, relying on direct learning from data rather than traditional rule-based systems and detailed maps. This approach helped the company build an AI platform capable of adapting to different environments and learning from real-world experiences. With the launch of the new lab, the company aims to leverage this expertise to develop more general-purpose models that can be used in multiple applications within the physical world, beyond transportation and smart vehicles.