BASTROP COUNTY, TEXAS - APRIL 21: In an aerial view, the Boring Company facility is seen near the premises of Tesla CEO Elon Musk's Snailbrook town on April 21, 2025 in Bastrop, Texas.
Wayve last year said it had raised $1.05 billion led by Japan's SoftBank along with US titans Microsoft and Nvidia -- at the time the largest ever fundraising among European start-ups at the forefront of the AI field.
Traditional self-driving systems rely on pre-programmed maps.
But AI allows for "natural and human-like driving behaviour" that can "safely navigate around other road users", founder and CEO Alex Kendall told reporters.
Although fully driverless cars are still some way off, Wayve has started training its data models and testing them on the road -- under human supervision -- in London as well as the United States, Canada and Germany.
Now the company is "experiencing the roads in Japan and letting our AI learn the road and adapt to it", company president Erez Dagan said.
Wayve wants to sell its technology to automakers and this month announced a partnership with Japan's Nissan.
The company says that sets it apart from Elon Musk's Tesla, which is developing its own AI-powered self-driving cars.
Tesla in February started offering advanced self-driving functions for its vehicles in China, including autopilot on city streets.
The functions described are similar to the "Full Self-Driving" capability it offers in the United States, meant to be used under driver supervision.
Wayve said its Japanese testing and development centre will be in Yokohama near Tokyo, with about a dozen employees.