Mercedes-Benz and UK-based autonomous driving startup Wayve have signed a definitive production agreement to integrate the Wayve AI Driver into future Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

The companies are targeting urban point-to-point driving assistance within two years.

The deal follows German car maker’s investment in Wayve's Series D funding round earlier this year and extends a multi-year technical collaboration between the two companies.

During this period, the teams worked to validate the AI Driver for use in future Mercedes-Benz models, setting the stage for mass production development.

Mercedes-Benz CTO Jörg Burzer added: “This partnership marks the world’s first integration of the Wayve AI Driver in the premium segment, expanding the availability of advanced urban and highway point-to-point driving assistance. Together with Wayve, we are laying the foundation to roll out this technology worldwide and deliver an outstanding driving experience to a broader range of customers.”

The Wayve AI Driver runs on the firm's AV2.0 approach, engineered to pick up driving behaviour in a human-like manner, interpreting and responding to its environment without dependence on HD maps.

It is trained using Nvidia AI infrastructure hosted on Microsoft Azure, a setup meant to extend to new cities and driving conditions without geofencing or retraining specific to individual locations.

The same core AI Driver is built to operate across the full autonomy range, from driver assistance functions to fully driverless operation, covering everything from personal vehicles to robotaxis.

Wayve co-founder and CEO Alex Kendall said: “The pace and depth of our development work together reflect a deep technical alignment between our teams, integrating Wayve’s embodied intelligence with Mercedes-Benz’s vehicle engineering and safety expertise.”

Earlier this month, Wayve and Uber Technologies began supervised autonomous rides in London, described as the first instance of autonomous trips being offered in the UK.

The initial rollout involves supervised rides, with a trained, TfL-licensed private hire driver present to monitor each journey.