Toyota to introduce Level 2++ in 2028; Nissan to commercialize next-generation ProPILOT with Wayve by March 2028

jidounten-lab.com reported on September 15, 2026, “Toyota to introduce Level 2++ in 2028; Nissan to commercialize next-generation ProPILOT with Wayve by March 2028.” We have not been able to verify the information with primary sources, so readers should refer to the original source for details.

Toyota has set 2028 for introducing Level 2++ in mass-market vehicles for everyday use, while Nissan plans to bring its next-generation ProPILOT to market by March 2028, providing a timeline for updates to consumer driver-assistance systems. Honda’s one-year delay shows that deployment plans vary even among Japanese automakers.

The key point is that although all three automakers are discussing “autonomous driving,” their timelines and targets are not aligned. Toyota plans to bring Level 2++ to mass-market vehicles in 2028, while Nissan plans to commercialize next-generation ProPILOT, centered on Wayve’s AI, by March 2028. Honda, meanwhile, has delayed its plans by one year. The differences among the three should be understood not simply as development delays, but as reflecting different approaches to separating driver assistance in mass-produced passenger vehicles from autonomy in commercial vehicles and shuttles. A related article from this newspaper, Nissan expands autonomous driving trials in Yokohama, showed that Nissan was expanding the number of vehicles and pickup and drop-off locations in its urban trials. This report places a commercialization plan centered on Wayve’s AI beyond those trials, making the path from testing to market somewhat more concrete. However, this article alone does not make clear how extensively Wayve’s AI will be integrated into mass-produced vehicles or how much will be handled by existing driver-assistance systems. Structurally, Toyota combines an end-to-end approach that processes perception, decision-making and vehicle control with guardrails based on traffic rules. This appears to be a compromise that takes mass-production safety requirements into account rather than relying entirely on a purely learning-based system. The fact that Toyota is pursuing Level 2++ for passenger cars and Level 4 for commercial shuttles as separate programs also indicates that the company does not treat “expanded driver assistance” and “full autonomy” as equivalent. The next focus will be which vehicles each automaker, including Nissan and Honda, targets for commercialization, the ODDs involved and how safety responsibilities are divided. The industry-wide implication is that competition over robotaxis is spreading beyond purpose-built autonomous vehicles to include more advanced driver assistance in mass-market vehicles. With Waymo expanding and speculation about its entry into Tokyo, Japanese automakers face choices in both commercial shuttles and passenger vehicles. However, this is a roundup article, and readers should refer to the original source for details. In particular, the timing of Level 2++ and Level 4 implementation, the vehicles targeted for mass production, sensor configurations and the handling of training data still need to be verified.

For Japanese automakers, the need to pursue enhanced driver assistance in mass-market vehicles separately from Level 4 for commercial shuttles has become clear. An approach like Toyota’s, which combines sensor-based perception with rule-based guardrails, may align with Japanese development teams’ emphasis on mass-production quality and clearly defined safety responsibilities, but the specifics of implementation await announcements from each company.