Wayve announces first generative AI model for autonomous driving

Published on October 3, 2023, GAIA-1 (Generative AI for Autonomy) is the first model of its kind designed specifically for autonomous driving and has been developed from vast resources of real-world driving data.

World modelling can help AI models learn general representations of how the world works and how to predict what might happen next. By providing real world data, Wayve aims to continually better the models’ understanding of their surroundings, allowing the AI to anticipate and plan driving actions, as well as to understand the impact of different driving decisions.

The 9-billion parameter model was trained on approximately 4,700 hours from Wayve’s corpus of UK driving data. It leverages video, text and action inputs to generate realistic driving scenarios while offering control over vehicle behaviour and environmental features.

Commenting on the practicality of the model, Jamie Shotton, chief scientist at Wayve, said: “One of the features of the self-driving AI that Wayve is developing is that it is vehicle agnostic. Our AI technology is designed to operate on any type of electric vehicle platform, from passenger cars to delivery vans. Advances made in either vehicle type directly benefit the other.”

Wayve is currently testing its self-driving technology daily on UK roads and is undertaking Europe’s largest last-mile autonomous grocery delivery trial with Asda, the UK’s second-largest online supermarket.

During these tests, GAIA-1 is said to have shown accuracy in its ability to comprehend important concepts for driving, like distinguishing between cars, trucks, buses, pedestrians, cyclists, road layouts and traffic behaviours.

Shotton said: “The application of GAIA-1 to autonomous driving has the potential to improve how we build autonomous systems, but limitations include the significant processing time and current focus on predicting single-camera outputs.

“Our future endeavours will extend our model’s capabilities to encompass this broader perspective and optimise its inference efficiency. This evolution promises to make our technology even more applicable and effective.”

He added that Wayve, with offices in the UK and USA, is aiming to develop an SAE Level 4 automated driving system to bring the benefits of autonomy to everyone, everywhere.