British autonomous vehicle software startup Wayve is launching a new research unit called Wayve Labs to expand its artificial intelligence capabilities beyond self-driving cars. Led by chief scientist Jamie Shotton, a former Microsoft executive with a doctorate in computer vision from the University of Cambridge, the lab will focus on embodied intelligence. This field involves developing AI systems capable of understanding and acting within the physical world. Shotton, who has been with Wayve for nearly five years, stated that the initiative aims to push the company's research into the future, anticipating developments five years down the road. The lab will investigate how machines can learn to understand space, motion, cause and effect, and risk. This includes teaching systems to learn from the consequences of their actions and manage messy, unpredictable real-world situations. Unlike typical product divisions, Wayve Labs currently has no immediate plans to commercialize its findings. The new unit already employs dozens of Wayve staff and will recruit additional AI researchers and machine learning engineers. The company, which maintains offices in London, Vancouver, and the San Francisco Bay Area, plans to use the lab to publish research and develop new models. Shotton noted that the concept arose from observing that engineering teams often lack the time to deeply consider long-term future possibilities. Wayve Labs seeks to unite researchers to study lessons learned from autonomous driving and apply them to other forms of robotics. This move marks a return to Wayve's research roots. The company was founded in 2017 by Cambridge machine learning researchers Amar Shah and Alex Kendall, who believed in training self-driving cars with AI rather than relying on hand-coded rules and detailed maps. That approach, once considered contrarian, is now widely embraced by the industry. Wayve operates differently from competitors like Tesla or Waymo by developing software for other companies rather than building its own robotaxi fleet. In February, the startup secured $1.5 billion in funding from major tech and automotive players, including Microsoft, Nvidia, Uber, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and Stellantis, which valued the company at $8.6 billion. Wayve has also partnered with Uber to launch self-driving vehicles on its app in over 10 global markets, starting with London this year. Shotton emphasized that Wayve Labs is well-positioned to succeed because it can leverage the company's extensive autonomous driving data, compute resources, and financial backing. With a wide horizon ahead, the new lab represents a strategic shift to explore how the lessons of autonomous driving can advance broader artificial intelligence and robotics.