NAGOYA - Toyota Motor Corp. and Waymo LLC, the self-driving vehicle unit of Google parent Alphabet Inc., said Friday they will launch a trial service of autonomous taxis in Japan in 2027.
The two companies aim to eventually commercialize the service following initial operations involving testing and validation using Toyota's bZ4X electric vehicles.
The trial will involve a fully driverless taxi service, the companies said, with plans to roll out the taxis sequentially in countries where Waymo already offers its service, including Britain, without disclosing such details as regions and the number of the vehicles.
Toyota's plant in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, will handle all procedures ranging from vehicle production to the installation of Waymo's autonomous driving equipment.
The latest move comes under a partnership the two companies announced in April 2025 to speed up the development and deployment of autonomous driving technology.
By deploying such technology in the taxi industry -- a sector viewed as having certain growth potential, the companies are seeking to accelerate the expansion of Level 4 self-driving cars -- vehicles fully automated under certain conditions.
The partnership "holds the potential to expand into various areas beyond taxis, including commercial vehicles," said Toyota Executive Vice President Hiroki Nakajima at an online briefing for the press.
Waymo's co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov said that Toyota was chosen for its safety technologies, reliability, and quality of its vehicles.
In August, Toyota announced its goal to equip its vehicles in 2028 with technology that would allow drivers to use only minimal handling.
