Buzzy Nvidia-backed AI startup Wayve is partnering with Nissan on autonomous driving tech

• Nissan is teaming up with self-driving startup Wayve on a new version of its assisted driving tech.
• The Japanese firm is the first carmaker to use tech from the Microsoft and Nvidia-backed AI startup.
• Wayve's cars run on cameras and AI, allowing them to "generalize" in the same way a human would.

One of Europe's buzziest AI startups is teaming up with Nissan as the Japanese automaker looks to overhaul its assisted driving tech.

Nissan said on Wednesday it would incorporate autonomous driving software from London-based startup Wayve into its ProPILOT driver-assist system in 2027.

The partnership makes Nissan the first automaker to use Wayve's self-driving tech.

The London-based startup is among the hottest names in the world of self-driving cars, raising over $1 billion last year from investors including SoftBank, Nvidia, and Microsoft.

Like Tesla, Wayve's fleet of self-driving Ford Mach-Es uses cameras and end-to-end AI models that learn how to drive from real-world testing and simulations.

CEO Alex Kendall previously told Business Insider this allows Wayve's vehicles to "generalize" and adjust to new driving scenarios in the same way a human would, rather than relying on radar systems like lidar and high-precision mapping like rivals such as Waymo.

Wayve has expanded rapidly over the past year and is now testing its vehicles in the US and Germany in addition to its home base in the UK.

Nissan said the next generation of ProPILOT will incorporate Wayve's AI Driver alongside next-generation lidar to provide advanced collision avoidance capabilities. It will also utilize the technology's ability to learn rapidly from vast amounts of data.

The current version of ProPILOT is designed for highway use and provides cruise control and assistance with steering and braking.

That makes it more limited than rival systems offered by Tesla and automakers in China, where advanced autonomous driving tech is rapidly becoming standard.

The partnership is a major milestone for Wayve, which also struck a deal last year with Uber to collaborate on self-driving tech.

As companies like Waymo or Tesla hype up full driverless technology — also known as Level 4 driving — Wayve is more interested in working in what it views as an untapped market for advanced driver-assistance systems, or ADAS, for automakers. This includes Level 2 and Level 3 driving, which allows for a car to drive itself in certain conditions but still requires the presence of a driver.

"Our competitors are those who are also making really performant ADAS, L2, L3 solutions," Kaity Fischer, Wayve's VP of commercial and operations, told Business Insider at the recent Ride AI conference in Los Angeles, noting that Wayve's clients are largely original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

"L4 is still our North Star, and down the road, that will be the technology that we deploy."

Fischer said one advantage of Wayve's driver technology is that it's "hardware agnostic," meaning the software can work with OEM cars that may be outfitted with different levels of hardware support for self-driving, such as lidar or cameras.

One of the ongoing debates in the automotive world is whether a cameras-only approach to full self-driving — most notably led by Tesla — is a safe, cheaper, and, as a result, superior route to achieve fully autonomous driving at scale.

"To change the hardware on a vehicle platform is anywhere from a four to six-year lead time and it's very expensive," Fischer said. "We're able to work with OEMs and say, 'Alright, what hardware do you have already submitted for your upcoming production models? And then we can work together on the level of autonomy that makes sense for their vehicle."