Waymo and Toyota will introduce self-driving taxis in Tokyo next year, establishing Japan’s first fully autonomous ride-hailing service. The collaboration leverages Toyota’s electric bZ4X SUV for autonomous operations.
Waymo currently operates only in U.S. cities, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin, making Tokyo its first international deployment. The initiative targets the capital’s 14 million residents, where Waymo has previously conducted tests using the Jaguar I-Pace. The bZ4X was chosen for its automatic doors, ambient lighting, an electrically operated tailgate and generous rear legroom. Toyota will handle the conversion of the bZ4X for autonomous driving duties, with next year serving as a test-run for how the new fleet performs within Tokyo. Should the roll-out prove successful, more cities will gain autonomous Toyota taxis from 2028 onwards, including London.
Waymo’s co-CEO, Dmitri Dolgov, highlighted Toyota’s reputation for safety and reliability as a cornerstone of the partnership. Hiroki Nakajima, Toyota’s executive vice president, stressed their shared objective: scaling autonomous technology to reduce traffic accidents. Dmitri Dolgov said: “We chose Toyota because of our respect for the legendary safety, reliability and quality of their vehicles, and we look forward to deepening our collaboration as we scale our fully autonomous Waymo Driver technology globally.” Hiroki Nakajima added: “We are deeply grateful that Waymo, which helped pioneer fully autonomous driving technology, has chosen Toyota as its partner.
Safety technology makes the biggest difference when it reaches as many people as possible. “This collaboration will help scale that technology and bring it to customers in Japan and beyond through Waymo’s ride-hailing service, and in parallel, Toyota will continue to explore how integrating vehicles with traffic infrastructure can make those roads safer still. “No single company can achieve the goal of zero traffic accidents alone, but with partners like Waymo, we will get there one step at a time.”
The Tokyo deployment will use Waymo’s existing ride-hailing platform, with Toyota’s fleet forming the operational backbone.
