The companies plan to deploy their autonomous bZ4X vehicles in other right-hand drive markets such as the UK.
In April 2025, Toyota and Waymo made a preliminary agreement to work together on robotaxis. Now the companies have announced that they will test an autonomous fleet of Toyota bZ4X electric vehicles in Japan sometime in 2027.
The bZ4X is Toyota’s first modern mass-market electric vehicle based on the e-TNGA platform it developed with Subaru. Toyota will manufacture the bZ4X units it will deploy and test with Waymo at its Takaoka plant in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture. This is also where the motorist assembles the vehicles in the equip them with Waymo’s autonomous vehicle hardware.
“By combining Toyota’s global manufacturing and vehicle development expertise with Waymo’s fully autonomous technology, the companies will accelerate the scaling of safety-validated Level 4 autonomous vehicles worldwide,” they said in a statement.
The autonomous bZ4X fleet will join Waymo’s other vehicles in the country. It began testing its Jaguar I-PACE self-driving taxis in 2025 and hired drivers from Tokyo taxi company Nihon Kotsu Co. Next year, Waymo will launch a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Tokyo as a result of those efforts, though it’s unclear when it will add the bZ4X vehicles to its commercial fleet.