Unlocking the safe deployment of embodied artificial intelligence through intelligent regulation (Guest blog by Wayve)

Guest blog by Sarah Gates, Director of Public Policy, Wayve #AIWeek2023

The UK’s AI companies are leveraging rapidly-evolving advances in AI to develop world-leading applications that have the potential to drive productivity and improve outcomes across transport, education, health and other key sectors, transforming the way we live.

At Wayve we are reimagining the future of mobility by building embodied AI software that gives vehicles the intelligence to drive anywhere. We call this pioneering new approach to self-driving, AV2.0.

The uptake of Automated Vehicle (AV) technology in the UK has the potential to enable greater access to safer, smarter and more sustainable forms of transportation while contributing to the UK’s long-term economic growth and international competitive advantage. Our vision is for a world where people can reclaim the time spent driving and where safe, reliable and environmentally friendly AVs are the standard for transporting people and goods.

However traditional AV technology relies on expensive sensors, HD maps and rules-based coding, which are prohibitive to scale. This makes adapting to new locations, vehicle types, use cases, or business needs time-consuming and expensive.

Wayve’s ‘AV2.0’ solution uses machine learning to train its AI software to learn from experience how to drive in any environment. This results in AV technology that is not geo-fenced by highly detailed maps or pre-defined routes and can autonomously drive anywhere in its urban domain even to places it’s never been to before. This makes it highly attractive for commercial deployment as few transport services operate on fixed routes.

We expect that commercial fleet deployments will be where the early benefits of AV technology are first realised. That means AVs will be used to move people and goods, in last-mile deliveries, logistics, public transport and ride-hailing, and fleet operators can adopt Wayve’s AV2.0 technology - embodied AI that enables any vehicle to become self-driving - to optimise their operations and transform their service offering. AV fleets offer greater utilisation and efficiency, leading to fewer vehicles on the road and supporting efforts to decarbonise the transport network.

These are applications where the UK Government agrees there are prominent early use cases and where we already have commercial partnerships with businesses like Asda and Ocado Group to trial last-mile grocery delivery. This week, in partnership with Asda, we launched the UK’s largest self-driving grocery home delivery trial. The year-long trial will give the supermarket the ability to autonomously deliver groceries to a catchment area of over 170,000 residents across 72,000 households in London.

Trials like this are possible due to the UK’s progressive testing and trialling framework and provide the learnings required to bring the benefits of AV technology to customers sooner while ensuring that businesses, like Asda, are prepared to deploy AVs at scale.

However, legislation is needed to enable the commercial deployment of self-driving vehicles without a safety operator. In safety-critical industries such as AVs, the safety of the technology and the public’s understanding of who is assuring it, is of the utmost importance. Cross-purpose AI assurance methods are not sufficient for highly-regulated manufacturing fields such as the automotive industry, where safety cases and context-specific regulation will be necessary to convince domain experts that these AI systems are safe for their intended use. Intelligent regulation is crucial if we want to gain the benefits of this transformational technology while removing potential risks and instilling the public’s trust. It’s positive to see the UK Government’s AI White paper propose an agile approach that empowers the regulators who are best placed to address the risks of AI in their specific sectors.

Sector-specific regulation of AI will ensure that AI systems are assured by domain experts who understand the risks of deploying the technology for their sector, with established safety requirements and clear lines of accountability to industry-based regulators such as the Vehicle Certification Agency in the case of AVs. Industry wants to work with the Government to ensure a safety assurance and liability framework is in place to build public confidence in AV technology and to see its benefits realised.

The AV opportunity - a £42bn boost to UK economic growth by 2035, and 38,000 new high-skilled jobs - is the UK’s to lose if the Government doesn’t meet its commitment to enable commercial deployment of self-driving vehicles by 2025 and provide businesses with the certainty to invest in the long term. Inaction means the UK risks losing out on the transformative economic, environmental, and safety benefits of AVs to countries such as France and Germany, who are already putting in place frameworks for deployment.

The UK has the opportunity to become a hub for AI and AV innovation, attracting and growing new businesses in advanced manufacturing and tech, while transforming existing business models across various industries by adopting Wayve’s embodied AI technology. We need regulation to keep pace with innovation and provide the certainty and confidence businesses want to see to keep investing in the UK and ensure the benefits of this technology are realised here first.

Wayve