Patent Portfolio News

Patent portfolio news and industry developments

Updates on the patent portfolio and relevant developments in autonomous vehicle navigation.

February 25, 2026 — Wayve raises $1.2B Series D for camera-based autonomous driving

Wayve raised $1.2B at an $8.6B valuation, backed by Nvidia, Microsoft, Uber, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and Stellantis. The UK-based company plans commercial robotaxi trials in London in 2026. Wayve's end-to-end AI approach relies on camera input and learned driving behavior, which falls within the scope of the patent portfolio's claims on camera-based safety assessment.

January 21, 2026 — Zipline surpasses 2 million drone deliveries, raises $600M

Zipline raised $600M at a $7.6B valuation after completing over 2 million commercial drone deliveries. Expanding to Houston and Phoenix, Zipline's drones use cameras and Nvidia chips for autonomous detect-and-avoid navigation.

January 20, 2026 — US Patent 12,530,030 granted (continuation patent)

The USPTO granted US Patent 12,530,030, a continuation of US 12,001,207. The new patent adds 20 claims covering a clear-passage-determining module, method claims, computer program product claims, and system claims. The portfolio now includes 33 claims across two US patents. View continuation patent details

January 5, 2026 — Nvidia unveils Alpamayo open-source AV AI models

Nvidia announced Alpamayo at CES 2026: open-source AI models for autonomous vehicles including a 10-billion-parameter vision language action model with chain-of-thought reasoning. The first production vehicle with Alpamayo ships in the Mercedes-Benz CLA in Q1 2026.

Early 2026 — Tesla patents active camera glare shields for FSD

Tesla filed a patent for active, adjustable glare shields on its FSD cameras using sintered steel cones and stepper motors. Rather than adding lidar or radar, Tesla is solving perception problems by improving camera hardware.