# Wayve expects a shift toward eyes-off driving by 2028

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/wayve-expects-a-shift-toward-eyes-off-driving-by-2028/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Brandon Basso](https://realalpha.app/people/brandon-basso/) · Brandon Basso is head of simulation and validation at Wayve.
- Host: [Theo Jaffee](https://realalpha.app/people/theo-jaffee/) · Co-founder & host, MTS · One of the first members of a16z's new media team; earlier hosted the Emergent Ventures-backed Theo Jaffee Podcast.
- Host: [Sophia Dew](https://realalpha.app/people/sophia-dew/) · Host, MTS
- Show: MTS
- Episode: [Eyes-Off Autonomous Driving Arrives by 2028 | Brandon Basso](https://realalpha.app/v/XEJtFxyWlXk/), Nov 8, 2026
- Moment: 15:48 to 18:51 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/wayve-expects-a-shift-toward-eyes-off-driving-by-2028/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/XEJtFxyWlXk/?t=948

## Quote

> “I think there's going to be a **big shift in 2027** into 2028”
> — [Brandon Basso](https://realalpha.app/people/brandon-basso/) at [16:53](https://realalpha.app/v/XEJtFxyWlXk/?t=1013) · MTS

## Takeaways

1. L3 systems let drivers look away and hand safety responsibility to the car.
2. Eyes-off autonomy needs a higher safety bar than L2+.
3. Basso sees reclaimed commute time as a major social benefit.

## About this segment

Brandon Basso predicts a move from hands-off L2+ assistance toward eyes-off L3 systems around 2027–28. They could return commute time to drivers, but require much stricter safety guarantees.

From “Eyes-Off Autonomous Driving Arrives by 2028 | Brandon Basso”, Nov 8, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/XEJtFxyWlXk/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[15:56](https://realalpha.app/v/XEJtFxyWlXk/?t=956) I have some larger macro questions I wanted to ask. just about autonomous driving as a whole. This is an area that I'm particularly excited about. If you look at just the incidents of people who die from car crashes and thinking about, hey, maybe in the next generation, that number could, in theory, be zero. That is insane. And so if we could just zoom out, let's talk a little bit about autonomous driving in general.

[16:19](https://realalpha.app/v/XEJtFxyWlXk/?t=979) What does that enable for society at large? So many things. And to just emphasize your point more um those those stats are always very salient they always um hit me hard especially as someone who has young kids but um uh they disproportionately affect people who are younger who are less experienced drivers disproportionately affect different people in different ways throughout the globe and i think it's really incumbent upon us to to think very deeply about how we um upset the status quo here because the status quo isn't great um but beyond the safety argument which I think most people like sort of intuitively get to your question like what what is what's different about society what changes about society and I think there's going to be a big shift in 2027 into 2028 when we move from so look Wave is working on these systems that are these L2 plus

[17:12](https://realalpha.app/v/XEJtFxyWlXk/?t=1032) driver assist systems where you can take your hands off the vehicle you know you can get in vehicles today and experience this like in like in Teslas and customers in general love them and WAVE is working very hard to build credible evidence to show that that kind of driver can be safer than even expert humans so that's really important that's just the the foothold though what we need to do is move beyond L2 plus to L3 systems where sometimes those are referred to as not just hands-off but eyes-off systems so those are systems where you can truly check out do other tasks and the system is responsible for safety now of course to get to those level of systems you need to have much, much more strict, stringent safety guarantees, higher bar, because, you know, can you imagine hopping in your car and saying, you know, take me to the South Bay and taking a nap?

[18:03](https://realalpha.app/v/XEJtFxyWlXk/?t=1083) Yeah. That's a very different thing. It's, you know, almost at the level of what we consider to be safe for robo-taxis today. And I think when we get there, what happens for people is they get their most valuable commodity back, which is time. Their time. their time. There is this really interesting stat where people's happiness levels are almost directly correlated to their commute time. Imagine instead of being stuck in traffic from Sunnyvale to San Francisco for two hours a day, you spend that time working or napping or catching whatever you can do. Really exciting stuff. I know we're kind of at time. I wanted to ask right before we go, what is next for Wave? What can people expect to see over the next few months?