Waymo is adding the Toyota bZ4X to its robotaxi lineup. Toyota will build a custom version of the electric SUV with the Waymo Driver integrated right on the line in Japan, and a test fleet will start operating there in 2027.
It’s the first actual vehicle to come out of the partnership the two companies signed last year. And it gives Waymo a Japanese-built car for its Tokyo launch, with the UK and other markets to follow.
From “exploring” to building cars
When Waymo and Toyota first announced their deal in April 2025, it was a preliminary agreement to “explore” working together on autonomous driving, including in personally owned vehicles. Lots of intent, no product.
Now there’s a product. According to Waymo’s announcement, Toyota will produce the vehicles at its Takaoka plant in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, and Waymo’s self-driving hardware will be installed and integrated at that same site instead of being retrofitted somewhere else.
The robotaxi bZ4X gets a few rider-focused changes: extra rear legroom, automatic doors, a power liftgate, and ambient lighting. Waymo didn’t share sensor specs, unit volumes, or what each vehicle costs.
Operations in 2027 are about testing and validating the autonomous bZ4X fleet in Japan. The UK and “other Waymo markets” come in later years, with no dates attached.
The two companies also say they’ll keep working on autonomous tech for Toyota’s personal vehicles, plus safety projects with Woven by Toyota, the automaker’s software arm.
Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov said that “Toyota’s commitment to zero traffic accidents resonates deeply with us at Waymo.”
Waymo now has four vehicle platforms
The timing lines up with Waymo’s Japan plans. In September, Waymo said it’s targeting fully driverless commercial rides in Tokyo in 2027 with taxi operator Nihon Kotsu and ride-hailing app GO, scaling to about 100 vehicles, pending regulatory approval.
In the US, Waymo’s fleet is still mostly made up of Jaguar I-Pace SUVs, a model Jaguar no longer produces. It’s been adding the Zeekr-built Ojai van and the Hyundai Ioniq 5, and Hyundai is reportedly in talks to supply up to 50,000 Ioniq 5 robotaxis by 2028.
The bZ4X makes four. It isn’t Toyota’s first robotaxi bZ4X either: Toyota and Pony.ai started mass-producing bZ4X-based robotaxis in China earlier this year.
For US readers, the refreshed model is sold here simply as the Toyota bZ, starting at $34,900. A cheap, high-volume base vehicle matters a lot when you’re trying to scale a fleet.
And Waymo is scaling. It now does over 500,000 paid rides a week across 15 US metros, and it picked Toronto as its first Canadian city earlier this month, with riders targeted for 2028.
Electrek’s Take
This is a big one, even if the bZ4X is about as exciting as a toaster.
Waymo’s biggest constraint right now is cars. It has been running a fleet built on a discontinued Jaguar, and every new automaker it signs adds manufacturing capacity it doesn’t have to build itself. Toyota is the world’s best-selling automaker. Having it build Waymo-ready vehicles on its own assembly line is exactly the kind of industrial partner Waymo needed.
Yes, the bZ4X had a rough start (Toyota recalled the first batch in 2022 because the wheels could come off). But it has come a long way now – becoming boring and reliable. And for a robotaxi, boring and reliable is the whole point.
Compare that with Tesla’s approach: a two-seat Cybercab with no steering wheel, built in-house, with a self-certified autonomy stack that still isn’t operating at anything close to Waymo’s scale. Waymo keeps plugging its driver into existing EVs from established automakers and expanding city by city. So far, that’s working.
The way it is looking now. It sounds like Toyota will take over manufacturing Waymo driver cars for right-hand-drive markets. But what interests me most is the personal-vehicle angle. Toyota and Waymo keep mentioning it, but there’s still nothing concrete. If Toyota actually puts the Waymo Driver in a car you can buy, Tesla’s FSD Supervised pitch gets a lot harder to sell. Will that happen before the end of the decade? Who knows.
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