Honda Motor and Nissan Motor, which have been discussing areas of cooperation, are considering jointly developing an operating system for software-defined vehicles (SDVs) based on Nissan’s technology, informed sources said Sunday.

Functionality such as autonomous driving an be added or improved in SDVs through software updates. As the vehicle’s operating system (OS) is a core technology for next-generation automobiles, standardizing it between the two Japanese automakers is expected to improve development efficiency.

In 2024, Honda and Nissan announced that they would explore collaboration in areas including SDVs, batteries and vehicle supply. They later entered talks on a potential business integration. Although those merger discussions ultimately collapsed, the companies continued to examine cooperation on a project-by-project basis.

Following discussions on standardizing the OS, a key technology underpinning SDVs, the two automakers moved toward using technology developed by Nissan, according to the sources.