Wayve Tests AI-Powered Self-Driving Technology on Nissan EVs in Tokyo

U.K. startup Wayve has started testing its autonomous driving technology on Nissan Ariya electric vehicles in Japan. According to the Guardian, the company installed Wayve self-driving technology on Nissan vehicles and ran tests on Tokyo’s streets.

Tackling Urban Environments

Wayve’s autonomous vehicle tests were conducted in urban, crowded settings. Compared to highways, urban environments pose greater challenges for driver assistance systems due to the presence of parked vehicles and pedestrians.

Nissan cars involved in the Wayve self-driving tests were equipped with 5 radars, 11 cameras, and a lidar sensor. The vehicles were equipped with advanced collision avoidance features designed to assist drivers in urban areas.

“We want to build a trillion-dollar company,” Wayve CEO Alex Kendall said, adding that the startup had reached “a real inflection point in the capabilities of this technology”. This enabled its technology to learn how to deal with Tokyo’s crowded streets rapidly.

Wayve autonomous vehicle technology leverages AI models to learn how to drive. The technology consumes high volumes of video and driving data, it also identifies patterns that it can replicate. This approach differs from that taken by other driverless technology firms that rely on maps to programme their systems.

Nissan introduced its ProPilot system back in 2016 and rolled out a second version of the system in 2019 to assist with highway driving. Wayve technology in Nissan vehicles will offer Level 2 autonomous driving capabilities, which the company calls “eyes on, hands off” system. This level requires driver supervision.

“I expect level 2 will come at the greatest scale first. I do believe it will be incremental,” Kendall said.

Race to Commercialize Autonomous Driving Systems
Wayve signed the first commercial deal with Japanese automaker Nissan back in April 2025. The deal paved the way for Wayve to integrate its self-driving technology in Nissan vehicles to support the automaker’s driver assistance system starting 2027.

The U.K. tech startup is racing against competitors like Waymo and Tesla to prove that its autonomous driving system can work for automakers. Waymo uses its autonomous driving technology in its fleet of about 2,000 vehicles.

The autonomous driving company already operates robotaxis in Atlanta, Austin, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. On September 17, 2025, Waymo partnered with Lyft to provide autonomous rides in Nashville, Tennessee starting 2026. Wayve has already raised $1.3 billion in AI automotive startup funding from NVIDIA and SoftBank to expand operations to Germany, Japan, and the U.S.

Eying Global Expansion

Founded in 2017, Wayve has quickly grown to become a leader in autonomous driving in the U.K. The startup started testing its self-driving technology in Nissan self-driving cars days after announcing that AI chip maker NVIDIA was exploring a $500 million investment in the startup.

For every car that uses Wayve technology, NVIDIA supplies one or two chips. The giant chip maker also provides the data centers that Wayve uses to train its foundation AI model based on huge volumes of data that includes videos of drivers in real-world environments.

As part of extending its global presence, Wayve opened a testing and development center in Japan in April, 2025. The center serves to strengthen Wayve’s foundation model with real-world data from Japan’s unique urban environments with a view of enhancing global adaptability. By opening a testing center in Japan, Wayve positioned itself as a strategic software partner to Japanese automakers seeking to deploy safe, scalable AI for assisted and automated driving.