UK’s Wayve hits Japan streets with Nissan in bid to outdrive Tesla and Waymo

UK startup Wayve has started testing self-driving cars on the streets of Tokyo, before a 2027 launch to the general public.

Wayve is currently assessing whether Nissan Eriya electric vehicles will be ready to hit the road as it waits on negotiations with semiconductor company Nvidia for a potential $500 million investment deal.

The company, which was founded in 2017, has an international vision, with its headquarters stationed in London.

CEO Alex Kendall described the technological integration as “very similar from an AI perspective” and the cameras, radar, and lidar laser sensors as “a stack that is affordable to put on mass-market vehicles.”

The vehicles use a Level 2 type driver support, which means that they’re able to employ an “eyes-on, hands-off” approach, simultaneously utilising lane centering and adaptive cruise control.

Tokyo’s complex testing ground

Japan’s capital city will provide the ideal trial zone for Wayve’s cars, much like its rival Waymo did earlier this year.

The most populous urban cores of the city can exceed 20,000 people per sq kilometer, and the complex streets offer ample testing ground for this trial period.

Local carmakers Nissan, for example, are planning to test a fleet of 20 vehicles on the streets of Yokohama, in a bid to reach Level 4 involvement, which means using no human input at all.

Level 2, however, is the most likely to scale first, especially for Wayve, which needs to boost its automotive credibility before aiming for the lofty heights of full Level 4 robotaxi status.

Status of competitors

Wayve’s closest competitor in Japan is the similarly named Waymo, which is still in the process of Level 2 testing and, back in May, humorously had one of its cars pulled over by police and shared on Japanese social media.

なんでこいつ白バイに捕まってんの？笑
他SNSから流れてきたから引っ張ってきたけど笑なんの違反か？ pic.twitter.com/bbi6wjXM2t

undefined ゆっくり魔紗 (@YukkuriMasa1225) May 3, 2025

Elsewhere, Tesla is preparing to bring Full Self-Driving (FSD) to Japan but is held back by regulatory approval, with recent reports saying it has started supervised public road tests with a safety driver.

And Chinese-based company Baidu has partnered with Uber to roll out Level 4 testing predominantly in Chinese cities, with a view to expanding into Japan and other parts of Asia