Toyota to build Waymo robotaxis in Japan, with UK launch to follow

Toyota will build self-driving versions of its bZ4X electric SUV on the same assembly line as its ordinary cars, fitting them with Waymo's autonomous-driving hardware at the factory rather than retrofitting them afterward, the two companies said Friday. The vehicles are intended for robotaxi service starting in Japan in 2027 and, later, in the United Kingdom.

The announcement, posted on Waymo's official blog and mirrored in a statement from Toyota's global newsroom, converts an 18-month-old research pact into a concrete manufacturing and deployment plan. It is also Waymo's first factory-built vehicle program aimed squarely at right-hand-drive markets, where it currently has no purpose-built car in its fleet.

Building the robotaxi in a single factory

Toyota will assemble the autonomous bZ4X, sold in North America simply as the "bZ," at its Takaoka plant in Toyota City, in Japan's Aichi Prefecture. According to the companies, the entire process, from building the base electric vehicle to integrating Waymo's sensors and onboard computers, will happen at that one site rather than through a separate conversion step, a departure from how Waymo has outfitted earlier partner vehicles such as the Jaguar I-Pace.

The companies describe the finished vehicle as Level 4 autonomous, meaning it is designed to operate without a human safety driver within its approved service area. Toyota said the cabin has been reworked for ride-hailing use, with extra rear legroom, automatic doors, a power liftgate and ambient lighting. Waymo has not disclosed how many of the vehicles it plans to build or where in Japan testing will begin, and neither company has given a specific launch date for paying riders.

Waymo, which is owned by Alphabet, says that in the areas where it already operates it is "up to 20 times safer than human drivers" for crashes causing serious injury, a figure drawn from its own safety reporting rather than from an independent regulator.

From an exploratory deal to a vehicle order

Friday's announcement replaces the open-ended language of the agreement Toyota and Waymo signed in April 2025, which committed the companies only to "explore" a collaboration without naming a vehicle, a market or a timeline. The new deal is narrower and more concrete: a named car, a named factory and a first market. Reporting by Motor1 describes it as Waymo's first factory-integrated vehicle program built specifically for right-hand-traffic markets, distinguishing it from the retrofitted Jaguar I-Pace fleet Waymo already runs in test programs in London and Tokyo.

The deal places Toyota alongside Hyundai, Zeekr and Jaguar Land Rover as automakers supplying vehicles for Waymo's robotaxi business, while keeping Toyota's domestic manufacturing base at the center of its own autonomous-vehicle ambitions. A separate bZ4X-based robotaxi, developed with the Chinese self-driving company Pony.ai and built at a GAC Toyota plant in China, already carries passengers in several Chinese cities, but it runs on different autonomy software and is not connected to the Waymo deal.

The move comes as Waymo's own US service continues to expand rapidly. Over the past several weeks the company has added roughly 250 square miles of coverage across existing markets, opened airport access in Las Vegas, begun laying groundwork for its first Spanish service in Madrid, and started preparing a Toronto launch targeted for 2028. Tokyo and London have long been described as Waymo's first stops outside North America; Friday's deal gives that plan an actual vehicle and an actual production line.

The United Kingdom still waits on regulators

Japan has a firm, if early, timeline: initial testing and validation of the autonomous bZ4X begins there in 2027, with Toyota and Waymo describing the eventual goal as Japan's first large-scale, fully autonomous ride-hailing service using a domestically built vehicle. No comparable date exists yet for Britain.

Waymo has been running supervised test drives of Jaguar I-Pace vehicles in London for months, but a public, driverless service there depends on permits the company does not yet hold. The UK's Department for Transport has been building the regulatory path those permits will travel through: its guidance for the self-driving vehicle pilot scheme, published this spring, lays out how operators can apply to run passenger services without a safety driver in England, Scotland and Wales. Vehicles must first be registered as capable of self-driving, and carrying fare-paying passengers requires a separate Automated Passenger Services permit under the Automated Vehicles Act 2024. The full regulatory regime envisioned by that Act is not due to take effect until the second half of 2027, meaning the bZ4X built for right-hand-drive markets may be tested in Britain well before it is legally allowed to carry passengers there without a human behind the wheel.

"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," said Hiroki Nakajima, a Toyota board member and executive vice president, in the companies' joint statement.

Waymo co-chief executive Dmitri Dolgov struck a similar note, saying in the same statement that "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." Toyota's software and mobility subsidiary, Woven by Toyota, said it will separately study how data from Waymo's real-world operations could improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists, and how connecting vehicles to road infrastructure might smooth traffic beyond Waymo's own fleet.

Both companies said they intend to keep exploring a second, longer-term ambition from the original 2025 agreement: adapting Waymo's self-driving system for Toyota's personally owned consumer vehicles, rather than only for ride-hailing fleets. Neither side gave a timeline for that work, and Friday's announcement was limited to commercial robotaxi service. For now, the concrete commitment is narrower and nearer-term: a Japanese factory, a 2027 start date for testing, and a British market that will have to wait for its own regulators before Toyota's electric SUV can pick up a fare on its own.