Move over Tesla, here comes Wayve: a new self-driving player in California

Wayve, a well-funded London-based autonomous vehicle startup backed by Uber and Softbank, will begin testing its "Tesla-like" self-learning automated driving software in San Francisco and the Bay Area. The move marks its first on-road trials outside of the UK.

Wayve opened a new office in Sunnyvale, California, to support its US expansion and AI development, which is intended to allow vehicles to interact with and learn from human behavior in real-world environments. The concept, of course, is to enhance safety of autonomous vehicle to make roads safer for everyone.

The testing program, it says, will be focused on its self-learning autonomous driving system, similar to Tesla's, to enhance driving safety. In turn, it will also will develop its AI software capable of enabling a range of driving assistance and automation features for any number of vehicle – the company plans to sell its software to auto OEMs, but no partnerships have been announced. In terms of testing, what this mean for starters is that human test drivers will cruise around Bay Area streets in a small fleet of Mustang Mach-E EVs with their hands off the wheel. The company will start small and eventually build up to testing more advanced autonomous driving.

Back in Aug, the company said that its autonomous vehicles are expected to be available in Uber's network in multiple markets around the globe.

"Launching our U.S. testing program in California deepens our collaboration with key partners like Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Uber," Kaity Fisher, Wayve's vice president of operations and commercial, said in a statement. "Their support in cloud computing, silicon, and mobility services will accelerate the creation of a global ecosystem that will bring our AI-driving technology to automotive partners."