# Alex Kendall

> Alex Kendall is a New Zealand engineer, computer vision researcher and the London-based co-founder and CEO of Wayve. Founded with Amar Shah in 2017, Wayve develops learned driving intelligence for automakers and mobility operators. His career connects Cambridge research on geometry and uncertainty with commercial partnerships involving Nissan, Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz and Uber.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at Wayve
- **Organizations:** Wayve, University of Cambridge, Trinity College, Cambridge, University of Auckland, Skydio
- **Nationality:** New Zealander
- **Education:** Bachelor of Engineering (Honours), Mechatronics Engineering, University of Auckland, PhD, Geometry and Uncertainty in Deep Learning for Computer Vision; supervised by Roberto Cipolla; Woolf Fisher scholarship, University of Cambridge
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads Wayve., Co-authored research on end-to-end driving, semantic segmentation, camera localisation, multi-task learning and uncertainty., ELLIS PhD Award, 2019.

## Career timeline

- **2011** — Entered the second year of mechatronics engineering at the University of Auckland directly from high school.
- **2014** — Joined Trinity College, Cambridge, for doctoral research.
- **2017** — Co-founded Wayve with Amar Shah; Cambridge dates his doctoral thesis to November 2017.
- **2018** — Co-authored Learning to Drive in a Day, demonstrating reinforcement learning for lane following in a real vehicle.
- **2019** — Named among the inaugural six ELLIS PhD Award winners.
- **2020** — Featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 and the University of Auckland 40 Under 40.
- **2023** — Hosted Bill Gates on a Wayve test ride in London.
- **2024** — Led Wayve through a $1.05 billion Series C led by SoftBank Group, with NVIDIA and Microsoft participating.
- **2025** — Appointed OBE for services to artificial intelligence and awarded the Princess Royal Silver Medal; Wayve signed definitive agreements with Nissan in December.
- **2026** — Wayve announced a $1.2 billion Series D, launched supervised Uber rides in London, signed a Mercedes-Benz production agreement and demonstrated Fiat and Maserati development vehicles with Stellantis.

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads Wayve.
- Co-authored research on end-to-end driving, semantic segmentation, camera localisation, multi-task learning and uncertainty.
- ELLIS PhD Award, 2019.
- Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe, 2020.
- University of Auckland 40 Under 40, 2020.
- OBE for services to artificial intelligence, 2025.
- Royal Academy of Engineering Princess Royal Silver Medal, 2025.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — On October 9, Kendall and Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa discussed their partnership in Turin; Fiat 500e and Maserati Grecale development vehicles demonstrated supervised driving assistance.
- **2026-10** — On October 1, Valeo announced its selection as system Tier-1 supplier for Nissan’s next-generation ProPILOT program, integrating Wayve AI Driver.
- **2026-09** — On September 22, Wayve and Mercedes-Benz announced a production agreement for driving assistance in future vehicles, starting within the next two years.
- **2026-09** — On September 3, Wayve and Uber launched supervised autonomous rides in London, with a trained licensed driver onboard.
- **2026-07** — Published A frontier ecosystem for embodied AI, discussing manufacturer control over product identity and proprietary learning assets.
- **2026-02** — Wayve announced a $1.2 billion Series D at an $8.6 billion post-money valuation; additional milestone-based Uber capital brought the broader funding package to $1.5 billion.

## Links

- Website: https://alexgkendall.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexgkendall
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/alexgkendall
- GitHub: https://github.com/alexgkendall

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/alex-kendall
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-22