Self-Driving Cars Pedalled a Lie So Far?

Tesla identifies itself as an autonomous vehicle maker. But all the hype you hear around Tesla cars manoeuvring themselves is just hype – far from being truly autonomous. They are still languishing at Level 2, where the vehicle can only assist with steering or acceleration functions and allow the driver to disengage from some of their tasks. The driver must always be ready to take control of the vehicle and is still responsible for most safety-critical functions and monitoring of the environment.

Meanwhile, a UK-based self-driving car company Wayve has cracked the Level 5 technology, which will require absolutely no human attention. There is no need for pedals or a steering wheel, as the autonomous vehicle system controls all critical tasks, monitoring the environment and identification of unique driving conditions, like traffic jams.

In June of this year, Wayve published a technical report detailing its generative world model, GAIA-1 (Generative AI for Autonomy) which leverages video, text, and action inputs to generate realistic driving scenarios.