Waymo will test Toyota bZ4X robotaxis in Japan

What Toyota and Waymo announced on October 30

Toyota will supply a factory-built bZ4X for Waymo's robotaxi service, and the first step is a test fleet in Japan in 2027. Toyota Motor Corporation and Waymo announced the next phase of their partnership on October 30, 2026. The move turns a preliminary agreement from April 2025 into a specific vehicle and a start date.

Both companies say they want to scale Level 4 vehicles worldwide. Level 4 means the car drives itself entirely within set conditions, such as a mapped service area, with no human driver needed.

2027 is a test-and-validate phase, not a public launch

Neither company has named a city, a fleet size, a fare or a date when the public can ride. Waymo's blog post describes the 2027 work as "initial operations to test and validate" a bZ4X fleet in Japan. That wording describes a trial stage, and the post says nothing about rides for paying customers.

Toyota's Japanese release uses the same framing. It describes the 2027 step as initial operations that include testing and validation, and it adds no service details.

The UK and other Waymo markets come later

After Japan, the bZ4X is planned for the United Kingdom and other markets where Waymo operates, with no dates given for those launches. The companies frame the deal as a way to put more Level 4 vehicles on the road, not as a Japan-only project. Waymo calls the Japan phase a major milestone toward the country's first fully autonomous ride-hailing service built on mass-produced, domestically made cars.

Toyota will build the bZ4X robotaxi at its Takaoka plant

Waymo's self-driving hardware goes into the car on the same site where Toyota assembles it, in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture. According to the announcement, the whole process happens under one roof, from building the base bZ4X to integrating Waymo's AV hardware. Toyota brings its manufacturing and vehicle development experience, and Waymo brings its fully autonomous driving technology.

Waymo also designs some of that hardware itself, including a chip that processes raw sensor data (see Waymo custom chip: 5nm ASIC for lidar and cameras). The October announcement does not say which sensors or chips the bZ4X will carry.

Rear legroom, automatic doors and a power liftgate

Toyota and Waymo say the custom-outfitted bZ4X is designed for comfort and accessibility as well as safety. The rider-facing changes are generous rear legroom, automatic doors, a power liftgate and ambient lighting. The companies say these features are meant to make it easier for riders to get in and out.

Why did Waymo choose Toyota?

Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov pointed to the safety, reliability and quality of Toyota's vehicles, and also claimed Waymo is up to 20 times safer than human drivers for serious crash injuries. He said Waymo picked Toyota out of respect for those qualities. The 20x figure is Waymo's own claim and applies to the areas where it already operates.

Hiroki Nakajima, a Toyota board member and executive vice president, said safety technology makes the biggest difference when it reaches as many people as possible. He added that no single company can reach zero traffic accidents alone.

The two companies will keep exploring self-driving technology for personally owned Toyota cars. With Woven by Toyota, they also plan to study how lessons from Waymo's operations could improve safety for other road users.

How the deal relates to Waymo's Tokyo plan

The Tokyo plan, announced in September with Nihon Kotsu and GO, is a separate project, and so far it has no named vehicle. GO runs a ride-hailing app (a phone app for calling a car or taxi), and Nihon Kotsu is a Tokyo taxi operator. On September 14, 2026, the two companies and Waymo said they had officially agreed to prepare an unmanned commercial service in Tokyo for 2027.

Waymo and GO first announced the Tokyo effort in December 2024. Pairing with a ride-hailing app is not new for Waymo: in the US, some cities let riders book its cars through Uber (see Waymo Uber exclusivity to end in Austin, Atlanta). At the time of the Tokyo post, Waymo operated in 15 major US cities and was providing over half a million rides a week.

Tokyo targets about 100 vehicles, pending approval

Riders would book through the GO or Waymo apps, but the 2027 start depends on national and local approval and on finishing validation. The service would start with a small fleet and grow to around 100 vehicles across key Tokyo neighborhoods. Since arriving in Tokyo in 2025, Waymo cars have driven autonomously for about a year with trained Nihon Kotsu crew members supervising.

Neither announcement names the car for Tokyo

Whether the Tokyo fleet will use the bZ4X is an open question, because the September post names no vehicle and the October post does not mention Tokyo. Both plans point to 2027 in Japan, but they were announced by different groups of companies on different dates.

Until Waymo says which car will run in Tokyo, it is not safe to assume the 100 Tokyo vehicles will be Toyota bZ4Xs. The October announcement covers the car and the plant only.

What is still unknown about Waymo in Japan

Waymo now has a Japanese-built car and Tokyo partners, announced separately, but riders still have no city, fare or start date to plan around. Each announcement covers what the other leaves out. The October post explains how the car will be built but not where it will run.

The September post explains where the service will run, which apps riders will use and roughly how many cars there will be, but not which car. Neither post gives a fare.

Some coverage has treated the bZ4X as the car for Waymo's Tokyo launch, but neither announcement links the two plans. Until Waymo names a vehicle for Tokyo or a service area for the bZ4X, riders cannot tell when or where they will be able to take one.