Waymo and Toyota have announced that the next Waymo robotaxi will be the Toyota bZ4X electric vehicle, with Toyota building the cars in Japan and initial operations there starting in 2027. The announcement was made on October 30, 2026, in a Waymo blog post and was covered the same day by TechCrunch.
What the companies announced
Waymo says that Toyota and Waymo will begin initial operations to test and validate an autonomous Toyota bZ4X fleet in Japan in 2027. Deployment to the United Kingdom and other Waymo markets is planned for the following years, according to the same post. TechCrunch frames it as a vehicle supply deal and says Waymo will begin testing self-driving versions in Japan next year.
TechCrunch notes that the model is now sold as the bZ in North America and says Toyota will manufacture the 2027 bZ4X vehicles. Waymo's own post does not use the 2027 model-year label, so we are attributing that to TechCrunch. Neither source names a Japanese city for the first operations.
Built in one place
Waymo says Toyota will build the vehicles at its Takaoka plant in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture. The whole process takes place under one roof, from assembling the base vehicle to integrating Waymo's autonomous driving hardware, according to the post. TechCrunch confirms that Waymo's self-driving system will be fitted at the Takaoka factory.
Waymo describes the result as a safety-validated Level 4 autonomous vehicle, and says it is customised for comfort and accessibility, with generous rear legroom, automatic doors, a power liftgate and ambient lighting. Neither source gives sensor details, so we cannot say what hardware the bZ4X will carry. Waymo calls the project a step in the expansion of Japan's first fully autonomous ride-hailing service using high-volume, domestically manufactured vehicles.
Why the UK matters
Only TechCrunch spells out the UK plan. It says the deal gives Waymo a right-hand-drive vehicle for markets such as Britain, and that Waymo has been testing Jaguar I-Pace vehicles in London for months. TechCrunch adds that a London robotaxi launch depends on Waymo receiving the necessary permits. That context does not appear in Waymo's post, which refers only to deployment in the UK in later years.
A partnership that took 18 months
The two companies signed a preliminary agreement in April 2025, which Waymo's post links to. TechCrunch counts the new announcement as coming 18 months after that agreement, a figure that matches the dates. The earlier deal outlined a strategic partnership, and this one turns it into a specific vehicle, factory and timetable.
Both sources also say the companies will keep exploring autonomous driving technology for personally owned Toyota vehicles. That is described as exploration, with no products, dates or targets attached.
What the executives said
Waymo co-chief executive Dmitri Dolgov said, "Toyota's commitment to zero traffic accidents resonates deeply with us at Waymo." Hiroki Nakajima, an executive vice president and board member at Toyota, said, "No single company can achieve the goal of zero traffic accidents alone." Waymo's post also names Woven by Toyota as a partner for future safety work.
Waymo pairs the announcement with its own safety claim, saying its driver has achieved up to 20 times fewer serious injury crashes than human drivers in its published analysis. That is a company statement and we have not tested it independently.
What is still unknown
Several basics are missing. Neither company has said how many vehicles Takaoka will produce, what each car will cost, or when paying passengers might ride in Japan. Waymo's index teaser for the post talks about scaling a fleet in 2027, while the body of the post describes only initial operations to test and validate it, so we have used the more cautious wording from the body. Toyota has not, as far as we could find, published its own release on the news.
How it fits Waymo's recent moves
On October 8 Waymo announced it had closed a $5 billion term loan, its first debt financing, as it pushes into new cities. A dedicated vehicle supply line from Toyota addresses the other constraint on growth, which is the number of cars that can be built and fitted with the system. That link is our reading and Waymo has not drawn it explicitly.
India is not mentioned in either source, and neither company has announced plans for the country.
What to watch next
The first thing to watch is the identification of the Japanese cities where operations will start and the regulatory approvals required. We will also be watching for Toyota's own announcement, which we could not find on its newsroom at the time of writing, and for details of how many vehicles Takaoka will produce. In the UK, permits for London remain the gating item.
Published November 1, 2026. Gadgets365 will update this article as more information becomes available.
