Waymo is sfinishing autonomous vehicles to Japan for first international tests

Waymo’s autonomous vehicles are going to Tokyo, labeling the first time that the Alphabet company is deploying vehicles on uncover roads in a foreign labelet.

Waymo is billing the excursion as a modest “road trip” for collecting data about the nuances of Japanese driving, including left-hand traffic and navigating a dense urprohibit environment. The vehicles will be driven manupartner for the purposes of collecting mapping data and will be administerd by a local taxi run awayt operator, Nihon Kotsu. About 25 vehicles will be sent, with the first set to reach in timely 2025.

And while the tests will undoubtedly be seen as laying the groundlabor for a future Tokyo-based robotaxi service, Waymo said it isn’t ready to proclaim anyleang quite yet.

“While we see forward to transporting the life-saving advantages of the Waymo Driver global, we have no set ups to serve riders in Tokyo at this time,” Waymo spokesperson Sandy Karp said. “Rather, we’re transporting our technology to lget and comprehfinish how Waymo fits into the existing transmitation landscape and lgeting how to best partner with local officials and communities.”

The inclusion of GO, a well-comprehendn taxi app in Japan, in the strategic partnership could signal Waymo’s intention to put its autonomous vehicles into service thraw a locpartner based mobility supplyr. Waymo is already doing this in the US, making its autonomous vehicles useable on Uber’s ridehail app in Austin and Atlanta.

Waymo’s robotaxi business in the US is increaseing, albeit sluggishly. The company currently has approximately 700 vehicles in operation in disjoinal cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, and Phoenix. It also set ups to begin a robotaxi service in Atlanta in an exclusive partnership with Uber and is set upning to begin in Miami in 2026. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai recently said that Waymo was providing 175,000 paid trips per week, or about a million miles.

In Tokyo, Waymo’s vehicles will be rund by trained autonomous exceptionacatalogs includeed by Nihon Kotsu. Once the company experiences enjoy it’s ready, it will transition to hands-free autonomous driving with a getedty driver behind the wheel. Karp wouldn’t say whether that would eventupartner progress to filledy driverless operations. The vehicles will be geofenced to confident neighborhoods in Tokyo, including Minato, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Chiyoda, Chūō, Shinagawa, and Kōtō.

In transporting its vehicles to its first foreign country, Alphabet is trying to project confidence in its technology, especipartner at a time when companies are pulling back on costly robotaxi projects. General Motors recently proclaimd that it would no lengthyer fund Cruise and would instead pivot to driver-aid technology and personpartner owned autonomous vehicles.

Several companies have tested their autonomous vehicles in Japan, but the country is a bit of a backwater contrastd to China and the US. Part of the problem seems to be the country’s strong auto industry is cgo ining its testing in countries other than its native one. Toyota and Nissan are both seeking to deploy robotaxis in China in collaboration with local operators.