Wayve's autonomous driving technology will come to Nissan vehicles.

Nissan has announced that it will implement autonomous driving software developed by Wayve to enhance its advanced driver assistance system, starting in 2027. This agreement marks a significant milestone for the British startup, which has raised over $1.3 billion from major investors including Nvidia, Microsoft, SoftBank Group, and Uber. The Japanese automaker plans to integrate Wayve's software, as well as sensors, including lidar from an undisclosed supplier, into its ADAS system known as ProPilot.

The Japanese car manufacturer stated that this system will set a "new standard in autonomous driving" with advanced collision avoidance capabilities. The system, which is in development for mass production starting in 2027, will be classified as Level 2, meaning it will be able to automate multiple driving tasks, such as steering and braking, although it will still require a driver to maintain control at all times. Specific Nissan models that will feature this system have not been disclosed.

Founded in 2017, Wayve has caught the industry's attention with its automated driving system, which is based on a self-learning approach instead of a rule-based one, similar to that used by Tesla. Wayve has developed a data-driven learning method that encompasses both supervised assisted driving ("eyes on") and a fully automated system ("eyes off"). Unlike Tesla, Wayve intends to sell its "Embodied AI" technology to other car manufacturers and tech companies.

Wayve's self-learning approach is appealing to automakers as it does not rely on specific sensors or high-definition maps, allowing its system to work with existing sensors like cameras and radars. The automated driving software leverages data from these sensors to make driving decisions. While the startup's development fleet uses Nvidia’s Orin system on a chip, co-founder and CEO Alex Kendall has mentioned that the software can run on any GPU that their original equipment manufacturer partners already have in their vehicles. This translates to cost-effective software that can be used in advanced driver assistance systems, robotaxis, and even robotics.

Shiro Nagai, a spokesperson for Nissan, emphasized in an email that Wayve's AI model, based on a large scalable model trained with extensive real-world driving data, allows the software to adapt to different environments and vehicle platforms. Nagai expressed that, "by leveraging Nissan's technology and Wayve's artificial intelligence, we are confident that it will enable future Nissan vehicles to closely replicate the judgment and actions of a careful and competent human driver in complex driving situations."