AI · 31 October 2026 · 4 min read
Toyota will build the next Waymo car. Japan in 2027 is a test, not a service that is open
The 30 October release says Toyota will assemble bZ4X vehicles at its Takaoka plant and fit Waymo’s hardware under the same roof. The body says initial operations to test and validate a fleet in Japan begin in 2027. The United Kingdom is planned for the years after. There is no count of cars.
Toyota and Waymo said on 30 October that they will begin initial operations to test and validate an autonomous Toyota bZ4X fleet in Japan in 2027. Deployment to the United Kingdom, and to other markets where Waymo already runs a service, is “planned for the following years.” The standfirst on Toyota’s release uses a different verb. It says the companies will “begin scaling” that fleet in Japan in 2027, “paving the way” for what it calls the country’s first domestically manufactured, fully autonomous ride-hailing service. Scaling, in a headline, is not the same sentence as a test. The release does not say how many vehicles, which city in Japan, or when a passenger would ride without a person at the wheel.
Toyota will build the vehicles at its Takaoka plant in Toyota City, in Aichi. The release says the whole job happens under one roof, from the base vehicle to Waymo’s autonomous-driving hardware. It describes the aim as scaling “safety-validated Level 4” vehicles. Level 4 is the companies’ label for a car that can drive itself inside a defined area. A label on a release is not a car that has left Takaoka. The cabin list — automatic doors, a power liftgate and ambient lighting — is a specification. It is not a production count.
Dmitri Dolgov, Waymo’s co-chief executive, said that where Waymo already operates the company has “demonstrated that we are up to 20x safer than human drivers when it comes to serious crash injuries.” The release points that sentence at Waymo’s own safety page. It is a claim about the service that exists. It is not a result from a Toyota bZ4X, and “up to” is the width of the claim. Hiroki Nakajima, a board member and executive vice president of Toyota, said the work would bring the technology to customers in Japan and beyond through Waymo’s ride-hailing service. Cars people would own themselves are a separate line: the companies “will continue to explore” autonomous driving for personally owned Toyotas, including with Woven by Toyota. Explore is not a model year.
What is fixed, on this document, is a plant and a year for a test. What is not fixed is a fare, a city, a fleet size or a permit. A factory order for industrial arms, counted the same week, is a purchase that has already been placed. This is a plan to build a car, and then to see whether it works.