Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: The UK self driving startup Wave has raised over a
Speaker 2: billion dollars in its latest funding round, attracting interest from
Speaker 2: the US chip maker in video, joining US Now to
Speaker 2: discuss is the Wave CEO Alex Kendall, This is really
Speaker 2: an impressive funding round. I wonder where it leaves your
Speaker 2: company's valuation.
Speaker 3: Starting with the question, the one question we can answer today, Sorry,
Speaker 3: but thank you.
Speaker 4: It's a huge honor.
Speaker 2: We'll put it this way. Are you a unicorn or
Speaker 2: are you so far past being a unicorn that milestts
Speaker 2: milestones a dot in the rear view mirror.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, if you raise a billion dollars, I don't
Speaker 3: think you need an artificial intelligence to tell you that
Speaker 3: that makes you a unicorn. But look, the funding is
Speaker 3: a it's a lagging signal for us. I think it's
Speaker 3: a hugely exciting validation of the vision that we've been
Speaker 3: working on for so many years on it's been quite
Speaker 3: a contrariant approach to autonomous driving, but today we are
Speaker 3: just so excited about the potential of AI to disrupt
Speaker 3: the automotive sector.
Speaker 1: So how are you planning to spend the money?
Speaker 4: Then, Big question.
Speaker 3: So we've been developing embodied AI. I mean, if you
Speaker 3: think about AI that we've seen today with search engines
Speaker 3: and chatbots, that's just the tip of the iceberg. The
Speaker 3: really big opportunity here is bringing it into the physical world,
Speaker 3: and autonomous driving is just the best example of this.
Speaker 3: So we're going to be using the funds to grow
Speaker 3: our team and turn this technology into a product and
Speaker 3: hopefully bring it to cars around the world very soon,
Speaker 3: starting as a driver assistance system to improve the safety
Speaker 3: and enjoyment of the drives you can have around the world,
Speaker 3: and very quickly train it and grow it up into
Speaker 3: a full autonomy stack.
Speaker 2: It's interesting how you've chosen not to partner with a
Speaker 2: single car manufacturer to install this tack into vehicles. You're
Speaker 2: keeping your options open. Which car bakers are you talking to?
Speaker 2: Which ones do you think about working with?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 3: We're talking with all of the leading brands and we're
Speaker 3: excited to be working with it with some of them.
Speaker 3: But the key thing is that I don't think one
Speaker 3: car manufacturer can build the safest, the most performance system
Speaker 3: on their own. We want to ensure that we can
Speaker 3: build an embodied AI platform that can learn from the
Speaker 3: experience of a number of different manufacturers across the world,
Speaker 3: and the real key for that is you get the
Speaker 3: diverse experience you need to solve the long tail of
Speaker 3: edge cases. It's really a partnership approach and we want
Speaker 3: to ensure that the entire automotive ecosystem can access the
Speaker 3: benefits of autonomy.
Speaker 1: When should we expect to see driverless cars in the
Speaker 1: UK now? This is a subject that we've discussed with
Speaker 1: you before.
Speaker 3: We've been testing on UK roads with safety operators behind
Speaker 3: the wheel since twenty eighteen. One of the other exciting
Speaker 3: things happening right now is we're seeing law about to
Speaker 3: go through Parliament to legalize the operation of these vehicles
Speaker 3: here in the UK. To legalize it provide a comprehensive
Speaker 3: framework that allows them to be operated without a safety driver.
Speaker 3: So all the pieces are coming together and to we've
Speaker 3: got the capital to go build this into a product.
Speaker 3: The regulation and in the automotive industry, we've seen so
Speaker 3: many big inflection points in the last year with software
Speaker 3: defined vehicles making it possible to deploy this kind of
Speaker 3: technology on cars, and of course the explosive breakthroughs we've
Speaker 3: seen in AI in the last couple of years.
Speaker 4: It's coming really soon.
Speaker 2: Well we are speaking of which with Invidia being an investor,
Speaker 2: does it mean that you're going to get preferential access
Speaker 2: to those extremely in demand AI chips.
Speaker 3: Well, the scale of ambition we have to train in
Speaker 3: AI is just enormous, and I think the training on
Speaker 3: video data requires pretty significant infrastructure that we're thrilled to
Speaker 3: be working with Microsoft Azure and an Nvidia on. But
Speaker 3: of course, ultimately we want to ensure this technology can
Speaker 3: benefit automotive manufacturers no matter where their data is or
Speaker 3: what will provide them the flexibility to work with the
Speaker 3: chips that they want to. But from our perspective, Nvidia
Speaker 3: has the best embedded environment in the market today and
Speaker 3: so we're excited to be developing on that platform.
Speaker 1: Tassa's making some big promises in terms of getting self
Speaker 1: driving robotaxis up and running very quickly as well pushing
Speaker 1: towards self full self driving. How do you view them
Speaker 1: as a competitor in this space?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3: I mean it was exciting to us to see Tiesler
Speaker 3: pivot last year into an end to end AI approach
Speaker 3: like what we've been pursuing for the last seven years.
Speaker 3: I think that this is an enormous market though, and
Speaker 3: for the other ninety nine percent of cars and are
Speaker 3: manufacturer around the real world, we really want to become
Speaker 3: the embodied aiye platform for them and bring the benefits
Speaker 3: to autonomy to all kinds of vehicles around the world.
Speaker 2: Do you think it's realistic that the autonomous robotaxi plan
Speaker 2: will be in place by August the eighth, as elon
Speaker 2: mos most promises.
Speaker 3: Oh, look, I can't comment on what Tisa's building, but
Speaker 3: I wish them all the best. I' we're heads down
Speaker 3: at the moment making sure that we can execute on
Speaker 3: our roadmap.
Speaker 1: You've said that this is the final major fundraise for
Speaker 1: your company. Do you have an IPO in sights any
Speaker 1: thought of one that might happen?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: Equally, I mean, we've got all the capital we need
Speaker 3: to go and build this out to product. So our
Speaker 3: team is just thrilled at the opportunity and is going
Speaker 3: to remain focused on getting this built out. When we
Speaker 3: earn the right to talk about an IPO, I'd love
Speaker 3: to talk about it right now. It's all about how
Speaker 3: can we bring the benefits of autonomy and improve road
Speaker 3: safety around the world.
Speaker 4: That's what we're focused on today.
Speaker 1: Okay, well with this major fund raising around and wonder
Speaker 1: how long you see that funding in your current investment
Speaker 1: plan covering.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so that's a good question.
Speaker 3: We certainly need to grow and are looking to bring
Speaker 3: on board more talented AI expertise and product expertise to
Speaker 3: go go and to develop our roadmap and get this
Speaker 3: get the system shipped. But we want to be disciplined
Speaker 3: around this, and we're not going to take a blitz
Speaker 3: scaling approach or anything like that, but make sure that
Speaker 3: the lean, innovative I guess somewhat scrappy culture that we've
Speaker 3: started with continues strongly and ensures that we don't route
Speaker 3: force the problem with capital and put infrastructure like high
Speaker 3: definition maps or other things in place that the industry's
Speaker 3: seen so far. But we want to make sure that
Speaker 3: we can build a more intelligent system that solves the
Speaker 3: problem efficiently. And some of the things that have been
Speaker 3: caught to us, like camera first approaches rather than lighter
Speaker 3: or unsupervised machine learning to be able to more efficiently
Speaker 3: learn without labeled data. These kind of principles are going
Speaker 3: to continue to be really important for our growth and
Speaker 3: making sure we execute efficiently.
Speaker 2: And can you get enough of that expertise right here
Speaker 2: in the UK? Richie Snax as he wants the UK
Speaker 2: to be an AI superpower. Is this a good place
Speaker 2: to grow your business?
Speaker 4: It has been so far.
Speaker 3: I mean the academic ecosystem like Cambridge University where I
Speaker 3: started working on these ideas, has been a great ecosystem.
Speaker 4: In the early venture capital we've seen.
Speaker 3: I think there's work to be done in the UK
Speaker 3: for more of the growth stage capital. And you know, look,
Speaker 3: we've looked to the US in Japan for this round here,
Speaker 3: but by and large the government has been supportive and
Speaker 3: we're excited to see regulation come through to enable self
Speaker 3: driving here in the UK shortly. So all in all,
Speaker 3: it's a world leading ecosystem for AI, and hopefully we
Speaker 3: can help do our part to help build it even stronger.
Speaker 1: I note this so far in that answer, and I
Speaker 1: wonder if you looking to the US in Japan for
Speaker 1: this funding round should be your warning to those who
Speaker 1: are in charge in the UK that they need to
Speaker 1: do more to keep a company like yours here.
Speaker 3: Of course, everyone needs to stay on their toes, but no,
Speaker 3: we have no intentions to move our headquarters.
Speaker 4: I live and we're based here in London.
Speaker 3: We have offices in Silicon Valley and just recently open
Speaker 3: one in Vancouver, and of course are working with partners
Speaker 3: and all the automotive hotspots Tokyo, Germany, Detroit. So we
Speaker 3: are a global company and we intend to ship our
Speaker 3: product worldwide. You know, my family's screaming out for it
Speaker 3: to come back home to New Zealand one day soon
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 4: But the core of our expertise have.
Speaker 1: They been in touch? Have you had contact from the
Speaker 1: government in New Zealand looking for you to move?
Speaker 3: Well, you know in New Zealand's a small place that
Speaker 3: you might run into the Prime Minister at a local cafe.
Speaker 4: But no, not, we haven't had conversations recently.
Speaker 2: And have you also been talking to the Labor Party
Speaker 2: potentially the next government about your plans?
Speaker 4: We have.
Speaker 3: We've made sure that we've engaged both both sides of
Speaker 3: the benches. We've had many ministers and shadow ministers for
Speaker 3: demo rights to experience our technology and make sure they
Speaker 3: understand the potential of it. So, you know, I'm really
Speaker 3: excited to work with government and whatever shape it it
Speaker 3: may be going forward. To ensure that this regulation can
Speaker 3: be implemented effectively for the country.
Speaker 1: Do you find that they did understand the messages that
Speaker 1: you were putting across.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a it's a complex set of technology that
Speaker 3: that needs time to understand, and this is an ongoing conversation,
Speaker 3: but certainly it's been great to get get it started
Speaker 3: over the last couple of years. And the best way
Speaker 3: to see it is to come come right in the
Speaker 3: car and experience.
Speaker 4: It for yourself.
Speaker 1: Alex Candle, there CEO of Wave