Wayve, a British artificial intelligence startup, is positioning itself as a serious contender against Tesla and Waymo in the autonomous vehicle market. The company's self-driving technology recently caught the attention of Stellantis, which owns Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge and Ram brands.

Engineers from Wayve traveled to Detroit earlier this year to demonstrate their AI driver capabilities on Jeep Grand Cherokees. The prototypes impressed Stellantis executives enough that they gave investors test rides around Detroit suburbs and committed to implementing the technology nationwide.

In a significant business move, Stellantis announced plans to deploy Wayve's autonomous driving system across all its brands starting in 2028. This partnership follows a similar agreement with Nissan that could bring the technology to Japanese roads even sooner.

Wayve's approach differs from Silicon Valley competitors by focusing on end-to-end artificial intelligence rather than traditional mapping-based systems. This strategy appeals to traditional automakers seeking to compete with tech giants without building autonomous capabilities from scratch.