Toyota will build self-driving taxis for Waymo, the two companies said on Friday, Oct. 30. They plan to start testing a fleet of self-driving versions of Toyota's electric bZ4X in Japan in 2027, and to bring the cars to the United Kingdom and other places where Waymo runs or plans to run its service in the years after that. Toyota says the deal paves the way for Japan's first fully driverless taxi service running on mass-produced cars made in Japan.
The deal splits the work. Waymo supplies the self-driving technology, and Toyota builds the car around it at its Takaoka plant in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture. The whole job happens under one roof, from assembling the car to fitting Waymo's self-driving hardware. The companies say the cars are Level 4 self-driving cars, which Toyota's Japanese release describes as cars whose system does all of the driving, but only under limited conditions.
The companies say the taxi version will have roomy back seats, automatic doors, a powered tailgate and soft interior lighting to make getting in and out easier. The deal builds on a preliminary agreement the two announced in April 2025. They say they will keep exploring self-driving technology for Toyota cars that people own, and look at how lessons from Waymo's driving on real roads could make roads safer for everyone who uses them.
"Our partnership with Toyota will help us bring the safety and convenience of autonomous driving to more people around the world, including key international markets like Japan," said Dmitri Dolgov, Waymo's co-chief executive. He said that in the areas where Waymo operates, its cars are up to 20 times safer than human drivers when it comes to crashes that cause serious injuries, by Waymo's own count.
"Safety technology makes the biggest difference when it reaches as many people as possible," said Hiroki Nakajima, a Toyota board member and executive vice president. He said Toyota will also keep studying how linking cars to traffic infrastructure could make roads safer still.
In April, Waymo said it had started self-driving tests on London roads with trained specialists behind the wheel, as it worked toward driverless rides in the city in 2026. According to a news report, Waymo still needs permits before it can start that service. The companies have not said when the Toyota cars will reach the UK beyond "the following years".
Neither company has said how many cars Toyota will build, what the deal is worth, where in Japan the tests will run, or when riders there could take a paid trip.