Driving Impact Through Values

At Wayve, our mission and culture are inseparable. From the very beginning, we’ve been intentional about creating a mission-driven environment where world-class people can do the best work of their careers. Our values serve as the foundation for our culture, defining 'how' we deliver on our mission. They guide decision-making, inspire our team, and provide clarity as we tackle some of the hardest challenges in technology.

This year, we refreshed our company values for the first time since Wayve was founded seven years ago. These new values reflect the exciting transition we’re making—from being a pioneering deep-tech company to delivering transformative products at scale.

Why refresh our values now?

Since our founding, Wayve has challenged convention, taking a contrarian approach to reimagining autonomous driving with Embodied AI. As we prepare to launch our first product, we must evolve:

• From innovation to delivery: We’re moving from proof-of-concept solutions to delivering robust, reliable software that meets the rigorous demands of the automotive industry.
• Scaling resources and expertise: Success now requires not just world-class science but also advanced infrastructure to train and validate AI models on millions of hours of data, along with the automotive expertise to ensure seamless integration across millions of vehicles.
• A maturing market: Our contrarian approach is gaining recognition as the way forward. Now, we must execute—delivering results with speed, precision, and quality.

To ensure these new values reflect who we are, we chose a collaborative approach to create them. Our People team led workshops across all teams to explore how Wayve’s culture is experienced today and what it must become for future success. The alignment we found was a powerful testament to the shared commitment driving our team forward.

Our New Values

• Big problems ignite us.
• Aim high. Stay humble.
• Back each other to deliver impact.

These values are concise, actionable, and speak to Wayve’s DNA. Let me share what each means to us—and to me personally.

Big problems ignite us.

We perform at our best when complex challenges demand our deepest expertise. Where others see barriers, we lean into uncertainty and see opportunities for brilliant breakthroughs. We embrace the pressure, knowing it drives us to reach new heights and redefine what is possible.

What it means for us:

• Be bold and brave in your thinking
• See constraints as opportunities for innovation and challenge the status quo
• Use your creativity and grit to solve problems that will shape our industry

Why it matters to me:

Growing up in New Zealand, I learned to embrace challenges head-on. While mountain biking with my school group, a family friend taught me a lesson I’ve never forgotten: when approaching a rock or drop, it’s often safer to accelerate rather than slow down. That counterintuitive advice has shaped my mindset—accelerating into challenges, not hesitation, has been a core principle throughout my life.

At Wayve, this mindset has been critical. From day one, we chose to tackle the hardest problems first, testing in urban London, one of the world’s most complex driving environments, before expanding to simpler driving domains. Constraints—whether limited resources, tight deadlines, or technical barriers—push us to innovate. I experienced this during my PhD when I pursued research that outperformed big-tech competitors with just four GPUs in my dorm room. This experience taught me how scarcity drives creativity, a lesson I carry with me as we develop scalable, data-driven solutions for global autonomy.

Aim high. Stay humble.

We recognise we are tackling one of today’s hardest technological problems. We rise to the challenge by striving for excellence that stands the test of time. Yet our humility grounds us to keep learning and evolving our strategies, so we can pioneer Embodied AI for a smarter, safer world.

What it means for us:

• Hold a high bar for quality where it matters the most
• Move with pace and agility to get the right things done using our latest insights
• Stay humble in your achievements and let results do the talking

Why it matters to me:

Autonomous driving has the potential to save 4,000 lives daily, reduce billions of hours spent commuting, and cut road accident costs, which account for 1.5% of GDP in the UK and USA. Beyond driving, the broader potential of Embodied AI represents a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity, as physical work, makes up ~70% of the world’s GDP.

Solving problems this complex requires humility. We can’t assume we have all the answers. At Wayve, we remain problem-driven, not solution-driven, and are willing to pivot when needed. For example, we’ve evolved our simulation strategy from early techniques like cycle GANs to procedural modelling, neural rendering and now scalable world models. The best teams balance conviction with agility, adapting quickly to data to solve impactful problems.

Autonomous driving also has some of the highest safety requirements in AI. With clear rules and safety objectives, this field is uniquely positioned to lead advancements in AI safety. Achieving this requires not only technical excellence but also humility and a relentless focus on quality.

Back each other to deliver impact.

We see the opportunity for impact that we each have towards our mission as a privilege, and we own it with pride.? We collaborate with each other beyond boundaries. We leverage our complementary strengths to deliver impact for our customers, partners and team. Humanity is core to who we are and how we build.

What it means for us:

• Take ownership of what you need to deliver and be willing to stretch beyond your comfort zone to get there
• Leverage the diversity in our strengths and expertise for maximum impact
• Empower each other through respectful challenge, feedback and support

Why it matters to me:

The best ideas come from collaboration. During my research career, collaborating with other groups led to fresh perspectives and ultimately new breakthroughs such as probabilistic deep learning for robotics safety. Autonomous driving requires an even broader range of expertise in engineering, data, simulation, machine learning, public policy, and business strategy. At Wayve, we intentionally build diverse, cross-functional teams to address this complexity.

We’ve seen teams fail when they focus solely on one domain—whether AV, AI, or automotive. Success lies in integrating these disciplines to achieve the best in innovation, quality, and safety. This requires not just hiring great individuals but building teams that maximize collective impact.

It’s incredibly rewarding to see many in our team grow. Wayve is a place where people can do the best work of their careers, with opportunities to move between technical and management roles based on where they can make the greatest impact. This balance of high ownership and collaboration defines how we deliver results together.