Waymo robot taxis will appear outside the US for the first time - Tokyo is chosen
Kyiv • UNN
Waymo will start testing self-driving taxis in Tokyo in early 2025 in collaboration with GO and Nihon Kotsu. The test will cover seven key areas of the city and will be the company's first experience with left-hand traffic.
Waymo will begin testing its autonomous vehicle technology in Tokyo in early 2025, and this will be the first time Alphabet's robotaxis will hit public roads outside the United States, TechCrunch reports, according to UNN.
Details
The move to Japan is part of Waymo's "road trips," a development program that includes bringing the technology to different cities and testing it - and each city will have its own challenges. In Tokyo, the Waymo robotaxi will face left-hand traffic and a dense urban environment.
So far, these trips have focused on a dozen US cities, usually to test specific conditions or environments, such as rain in Miami or extreme heat in Death Valley in California. The company has also tested its cars in Buffalo, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, and Seattle. Waymo usually starts by bringing a small fleet of cars to a city, where a human driver manually drives the vehicle and maps certain areas. Eventually, the cars will be tested in autonomous mode, initially with a human operator behind the wheel.
Waymo has announced that it will partner with taxi hailing app GO and taxi company Nihon Kotsu as part of its Japanese "road trip". Nihon Kotsu will oversee the management and maintenance of Waymo's vehicles, according to the company.
Initially, Nihon Kotsu drivers will operate the cars manually to map key areas of the Japanese capital, including Minato, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Chiyoda, Chuo, Shinagawa, and Koto. Waymo said it is working with the Nihon Kotsu team to train its employees to drive Waymo's Jaguar I-Pace self-driving cars.
Addendum
The announcement comes just a week after GM said it would cancel its Cruise robotaxi program, a decision that also ended plans to launch a self-driving taxi service in Japan with partner Honda. In October 2023, Honda, Cruise, and GM announced plans to jointly launch a robotaxi service in Tokyo in 2026 using a specially designed Cruise robotaxi called The Origin.
