U.K. artificial intelligence and autonomous driving startup Wayve is targeting the Japanese market as the next step in its global expansion plans.
The move comes on the heels of a tie up with Nissan which has agreed to use the company’s AI-powered software, backed by Nvidia, Microsoft, SoftBank Group and Uber, to power its automated driving features.
Bloomberg reports Wayve announced its expansion at Nissan’s test center in Yokohama creating its fourth market after the U.K., the U.S. and Germany where it recently launched a self-driving pilot in Stuttgart.
Wayve says it is joining forces with Nissan to help build the next generation of the automaker’s ProPilot driver-assistance system, which is due reach consumers within two years. The agreement is Wayve’s first supply contract with a mainstream automaker.
“The platform we provide can give a safer and more reliable driving performance than any single manufacturer can build on their own,” CEO Alex Kendall says.
He adds that his company’s competitive edge comes from the amount of data it can collect and the fact that its system is hardware agnostic. “What the automotive industry globally has been challenged by is building the right software,” he says.
