TOKYO, March 12 (Reuters) - Nissan Motor, Uber Technologies and British startup Wayve said on Thursday they will collaborate on developing robotaxis, aiming to roll out a pilot programme in Tokyo by late 2026.
Uber's first autonomous vehicle partnership in Japan, the plan provides for Nissan Leaf electric vehicles equipped with Wayve's self-driving technology to be made available to customers via Uber, the companies said in a joint statement.
"We have been testing our technology throughout Japan since early 2025," Wayve CEO Alex Kendall said in the statement.
"Partnering with Uber and Nissan to begin pilot deployment of Robotaxis allows us to introduce this technology in a responsible way."
The vehicles will operate on Uber's platform in the initial phase, with a trained safety driver in the cars. Uber plans to launch the service through a licensed taxi partner in Japan.
Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa told reporters that the companies were discussing whether to extend their cooperation to markets other than Japan.
Wayve, backed by SoftBank and Nvidia, partnered with Uber in August 2024. The two companies aim to launch services in more than 10 cities worldwide, including London later this year.
Last September, Nissan said it had begun testing a driver-assistance system using Wayve's technology, ahead of a planned launch in Japan in financial year 2027.
(Reporting by Maki Shiraki and Daniel Leussink; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Thomas Derpinghaus)
