Toyota and Waymo will begin testing an autonomous fleet of Toyota bZ4X electric vehicles in Japan in 2027, aiming for the country’s first fully autonomous ride-hailing service built on domestically made cars. The vehicles will be built and fitted with Waymo’s self-driving hardware at Toyota’s Takaoka plant in Aichi Prefecture.
What Toyota and Waymo announced
The two companies detailed the plan in a joint announcement on Toyota’s newsroom on October 30, 2026. Testing and validation of the autonomous bZ4X fleet will start in Japan in 2027, with fleet scaling beginning the same year.
The bZ4X units built for the project get extra rear legroom, automatic doors, a power liftgate, and ambient lighting, features aimed at rider comfort and accessibility rather than at a typical personal-use buyer.
About the vehicle Toyota is using
The bZ4X is Toyota’s first modern mass-market electric vehicle, built on the e-TNGA platform the company developed jointly with Subaru, according to Engadget. Using an existing production model, rather than a purpose-built robotaxi design, lets Toyota lean on its own manufacturing scale for the autonomous fleet instead of building a new vehicle line from scratch.
That choice mirrors a broader pattern in the robotaxi industry, where companies increasingly retrofit existing, already-certified vehicle platforms with self-driving hardware rather than designing bespoke autonomous vehicles, a path that can shorten the time from announcement to road testing. For Toyota, it also means the automaker can lean on a car it already builds at scale rather than retooling a factory for a wholly new vehicle.
Why the Takaoka plant matters
Toyota says every step, from assembling the base vehicle to integrating Waymo’s autonomous driving hardware, will happen at its Takaoka plant in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture. Keeping the full build at one site is central to the companies’ goal of a domestically made autonomous fleet, rather than importing self-driving hardware fitted elsewhere.
Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov said, “We chose Toyota because of our respect for the legendary safety, reliability, and quality of their vehicles.” Toyota board member and executive vice president Hiroki Nakajima said no single company can achieve the goal of zero traffic accidents alone.
How this fits Waymo’s existing Tokyo plans
Waymo has already been testing Jaguar I-PACE robotaxis in Tokyo since 2025. According to a Waymo blog post, the company plans to open a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Tokyo in 2027, in partnership with Japanese taxi operator Nihon Kotsu and ride-hailing app GO.
The Toyota bZ4X fleet adds a second, domestically built vehicle line to that Tokyo push, though Toyota and Waymo have not said exactly when the bZ4X units will join the commercial ride-hailing fleet alongside the existing Jaguar I-PACE cars.
In the Tokyo plan, taxi operator Nihon Kotsu supplies trained crew who supervised the vehicles during testing and contributes nearly a century of taxi service experience, while ride-hailing app GO provides the mobility platform riders use to book trips, according to Waymo’s own blog post. Riders will be able to book through either the GO app or Waymo’s own app, and the service is planned to run 24 hours a day once it launches.
Waymo says the Tokyo service will start with an initial fleet and expand to roughly 100 vehicles across key neighborhoods in the city, with the 2027 launch date depending on approval from Japan’s national and local authorities and on completing technical and operational validation.
What happens next
Toyota and Waymo first struck a preliminary agreement in April 2025, and this week’s announcement builds on that deal. The companies say the UK and other right-hand-drive markets will follow Japan in later years, though no specific timeline has been given beyond 2027’s Japan launch.
The partners also plan to explore autonomous technology for personally owned Toyota vehicles, and, working with Woven by Toyota, safety initiatives the companies say could benefit road users beyond their own fleets.
FAQ
When will the Toyota-Waymo robotaxis start running in Japan?
Testing and validation of the autonomous bZ4X fleet begins in Japan in 2027, with fleet scaling starting the same year, according to Toyota’s own announcement.
Is this Waymo’s first robotaxi effort in Japan?
No. Waymo has tested Jaguar I-PACE robotaxis in Tokyo since 2025 and, per its own blog, plans a fully autonomous ride-hailing service there in 2027 with partners Nihon Kotsu and GO. The Toyota bZ4X fleet adds a second, Japan-built vehicle line to that effort.
Will this expand beyond Japan?
Toyota and Waymo say the UK and other right-hand-drive markets will follow Japan in later years, though neither company has given a specific timeline for those markets.
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