EVwire brief: Waymo and Toyota are moving their autonomous driving partnership from paper to production, with the companies set to begin testing a fleet of autonomous Toyota bZ4X vehicles in Japan in 2027.
The Level 4 bZ4X fleet will anchor what the companies call Japan's first fully autonomous ride-hailing service built on high-volume, domestically made vehicles. Once the Japan rollout is underway, the robotaxis are slated to head to the United Kingdom and other Waymo markets in the following years.
Toyota will build the vehicles at its Takaoka plant in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, handling everything from assembly of the base bZ4X to installation of Waymo's autonomous hardware in a single facility. The robotaxi version also gets rider-focused touches, including extra rear legroom, automatic doors, a power liftgate and ambient lighting to make getting in and out easier.
Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov said Toyota's track record on safety and quality was why the company chose the Japanese automaker:
"Toyota's commitment to zero traffic accidents resonates deeply with us at Waymo, and we're proud to work together toward safer roads for all. In areas where Waymo operates, we've demonstrated that we are up to 20x safer than human drivers when it comes to serious crash injuries, and 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.
"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."
Dolgov's 20x figure tracks with Waymo's latest safety data, which showed 95% fewer serious-injury-or-worse crashes than human drivers across 271.3 million rider-only miles (436.6 million km).
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Hiroki Nakajima, Toyota's executive vice president and a member of its board of directors, said the partnership is about getting safety technology to as many people as possible:
"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."
Robotaxis aren't the only thing on the table. Toyota and Waymo will keep looking into autonomous driving technology for Toyota vehicles that people own themselves, and together with Woven by Toyota, the companies will study how data and lessons from Waymo's day-to-day operations could make roads safer for everyone else using them.
Waymo shared the announcement on LinkedIn:
Toyota Europe’s Director of Communications also announced the deal on LinkedIn:
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Context:
Toyota and Waymo first laid out their partnership in a preliminary agreement in April 2025, and the bZ4X now gives Waymo another automaker-built platform for its fleet. The Jaguar I-PACE is still the vehicle Waymo sends into new markets, while its purpose-built Ojai robotaxi is assembled by Zeekr in China before getting its autonomous hardware at Magna's factory in Mesa, Arizona.
A community count of that facility in August found 953 Ojai units on the lot, along with a dozen fully converted Hyundai IONIQ 5s. Toyota's setup is different, with the base vehicle and the Waymo hardware coming together at the same Takaoka plant.
The UK portion of the plan lines up with Waymo's push into Europe. London was Waymo's pick for its European debut, and the company has since set its sights on Munich, where public rides are targeted for late 2027, and Madrid, where it hopes to welcome its first riders in 2027. Further afield, Waymo is aiming to launch in Singapore and Canada in 2028. This means that the Japan-built bZ4X is set to join a Waymo fleet that is quickly spreading beyond the US.
Source: Waymo, Toyota, Robert Tickner on LinkedIn
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