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TOKYO: Nissan will integrate AI-powered systems made by autonomous driving firm Wayve into vehicles, the companies announced Wednesday, marking the British startup’s first deal to supply technology to an automaker on a mass scale.

While fully driverless cars remain some way off, the two companies said in a joint statement that their tie-up would help develop systems in real-world conditions.

The artificial intelligence systems made by Wayve, which last year said it had raised more than $1 billion, do not rely on pre-programmed maps but can navigate in real time.

Japan’s Nissan unveiled in September a prototype of a vehicle that combined Wayve’s AI self-driving software with its own high-tech laser sensors.

“Nissan are in most markets around the world, and we really aim to build an autonomy that can run globally,” Wayve CEO Alex Kendall told AFP.

“We are providing the AI software, so we’ll work with the vehicles they have—it gives them the choice to work with the system and the hardware that best makes sense for their business.”

Wayve has started training its data models and testing them on the road—under human supervision—in London, Tokyo and other locations.

The joint statement issued on Wednesday said Nissan had committed to using Wayve AI technology in its own “advanced driver-assistance systems” called ProPILOT.

Nissan plans to introduce its first vehicle model equipped with the new generation of ProPILOT in Japan in fiscal 2027, the companies said, with the North American market to follow.

“Nissan is the first automaker to commit to deploying Wayve AI systems at scale across a broad range of vehicle segments,” their statement said.

Nissan is on a bumpy road to recovery after being squeezed by an ultra-competitive business environment and US trade tariffs—just a few years after former boss Carlos Ghosn’s shock arrest and escape from Japan.

Progress has been rapid in the self-driving car sector, with major US players Tesla and Waymo, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet, testing robotaxi services.

Kendall said Wednesday that Wayve’s partnership with Nissan was “not exclusive”.

The company is partnering with ride-hailing giant Uber in London to develop and eventually launch public-road trials of fully autonomous robotaxis.