Waymo will begin testing Toyota bZ4X autonomous vehicles in Japan next year. As part of a broader collaboration between the two parties, electric vehicles for autonomous taxi operations will be provided for international markets, including the UK.

According to the cooperation announced by both parties on Friday, Toyota will produce the 2027 model of bZ4X vehicles at its Takao plant in Japan, and integrate the autonomous driving system of Waymo. (This electric vehicle is currently known as BZ in the North American market.)

These autonomous bZ4X vehicles will initially be tested in Japan, and Waymo plans to eventually operate autonomous taxi services in Japan as well. However, both parties intend to deploy these vehicles to other right-hand driving countries, such as the UK. Waymo has been testing its autonomous Jaguar I-Pace vehicles in London for several months and plans to launch autonomous taxi services there after obtaining the necessary permits.

It has been 18 months since Toyota signed a preliminary agreement with Waymo to explore the development and deployment of an autonomous driving vehicle platform. At that time, the agreement was more of a "let's see what will happen" nature, with rather vague wording that left a lot of room for interpretation.

For now, this collaboration is more like a traditional vehicle supply agreement, helping Waymo to meet the needs of specific regions, while also adding a new model to its autonomous taxi product portfolio.

However, this collaboration may not be limited to autonomous taxis. Both parties stated that they will continue to explore the possibility of integrating Waymo's autonomous driving technology into Toyota's privately owned vehicles.

Toyota and Waymo also announced plans to research other future “initiatives” to enhance the safety of other road users by leveraging “insights from Waymo real-world operations.” It is not yet clear what these initiatives will be, but Hiroki Nakajima, Toyota’s Executive Vice President and a member of the Board of Directors, provided some clues.

In a statement, he said: "This collaboration will help to scale this technology and bring it to customers in Japan and other regions through Waymo's ride-hailing service. At the same time, Toyota will also continue to explore how to integrate vehicles with transportation infrastructure to make these roads safer."