Waymo picks Toyota bZ4X for Japan robotaxi tests in 2027

Waymo will start testing self-driving Toyota bZ4X electric cars in Japan in 2027, the two companies said on October 30. After Japan, the cars are meant to go to the UK and other countries that drive on the left. The deal turns an 18-month-old preliminary agreement into a real vehicle program.

Waymo is the self-driving car company owned by Alphabet, Google's parent. Under the deal, Toyota supplies the cars and Waymo supplies the driving system.

What the two companies announced

Toyota will build the 2027 bZ4X at its Takaoka plant in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, according to Engadget. Waymo's self-driving hardware will be installed at the same factory. The bZ4X is sold as the "BZ" in North America, TechCrunch notes.

The first fleet will be small. Toyota's Hiroki Nakajima said initial operations will use a small number of vehicles, Reuters reported. Neither company said how many cars, or where in Japan they will drive.

Nakajima, an executive vice president and board member at Toyota, said the goal is to "bring it to customers in Japan and beyond through Waymo's ride-hailing service," TechCrunch reports.

Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov was clear about the order of markets. "We'll start with the right-hand drive markets in Japan and the UK," he said, according to Reuters. He added that "we don't have any other countries or timelines or specifics to share."

Detail	What was announced
Vehicle	2027 Toyota bZ4X, electric
Factory	Takaoka plant, Toyota City, Aichi
Japan testing starts	2027
Next market	UK, in later years
Fleet size	Not disclosed; "small" at first
Earlier deal	Preliminary agreement, April 2025

Why a factory-built robotaxi matters

Until now, Waymo has mostly fitted its sensors and computers onto existing car models for its pilots, according to Finimize. Building the hardware in at Toyota's plant should give a more consistent car from one unit to the next.

The bZ4X was Toyota's first modern mass-market electric car, built on its e-TNGA platform and developed with Subaru, Engadget says. Toyota can build it with the steering wheel on either side. That makes a design tested in Japan easier to reuse in the UK.

TechCrunch frames the deal as closer to a normal supplier contract. Toyota supplies a car, and Waymo adds one more model to its lineup. The April 2025 agreement that came first was vague by comparison, TechCrunch says.

How it fits Waymo's other plans

Waymo already has a separate track in Japan. It began testing Jaguar I-PACE cars there in 2025, with drivers from the Tokyo taxi company Nihon Kotsu, Engadget reports. It plans a fully driverless ride-hailing service in Tokyo in 2027 using that work. When the bZ4X joins the paid fleet is not clear.

In London, Waymo has tested Jaguar I-PACE cars for months. It plans to launch a robotaxi service there once it gets the permits it needs, according to TechCrunch.

The deal also leaves the door open for Toyota's own customers. The companies will keep studying whether Waymo's technology could go into privately owned Toyota cars. That follows a busy month for Waymo, which earlier closed a $5 billion loan, its first debt financing.

What this means for developers

• Mapping and fleet software teams should watch Japan. A left-hand-traffic market with a new vehicle platform means new driving data, new maps and new edge cases. Firms that sell tooling to robotaxi fleets have a new buyer to pitch.
• Do not plan around a launch date. Testing starts in 2027. No passenger service date for the bZ4X has been given in Japan or the UK.
• Factory integration is the real change. If Waymo hardware comes off a carmaker's line, robotaxi supply depends on car production, not retrofit shops. Watch whether other carmakers follow the same model.
• UK transport and city planners get a longer runway. Waymo's London plans rest on permits for its Jaguar cars, and the bZ4X arrives later. Expect two vehicle types on UK roads if both plans go ahead.