British startup joins Nissan to test self-driving cars in Tokyo

The British startup Wayve has begun testing self-driving cars with Nissan in Japan before a 2027 launch to consumers as the company said it was in talks for a $500m (£370m) investment from the chip maker Nvidia.

- Jasper Jolly

Wayve, based in London, said it had installed its self-driving technology on Nissan's electric Ariya vehicles and tested them on Tokyo's streets, after first agreeing a deal with the Japanese carmaker in April.

The British company is racing against rivals - such as Tesla, Google's Waymo, and China's Baidu - to prove that its technology can work for carmakers, after rapidly rising to become one of the country's best-funded startups and a rare UK artificial intelligence pioneer. Nissan was the first carmaker to say publicly that it is using Wayve's technology, although the Wayve founder, Alex Kendall, said the company was working with large manufacturers in Europe, North America and Japan.