Toyota teams up with Waymo to jointly develop autonomous cars

Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp. announced a partnership with Waymo, an Alphabet Inc. subsidiary specializing in autonomous driving technology. The partnership also includes Toyota's technology unit Woven. Together, they plan to create a new platform for autonomous driving and work on improving the next generation of personal vehicles.

Toyota has been investing in artificial intelligence and autonomous technologies for many years, but has so far lagged behind rivals such as Tesla and BYD, which are actively innovating in autopilot. Toyota is trying to make up for lost time, as it previously experienced delays in the development of its Arene software platform, which is being developed by its subsidiary Woven. This was due to changes in management in 2023. To speed up the work, Toyota agreed in 2024 with Nippon Telegraph & Telephone to jointly invest 500 billion yen (about $3.3 billion) in the creation of software for autonomous driving that will work on the basis of artificial intelligence.

For Waymo, this collaboration is an important strategic step, as the company for the first time goes beyond the autonomous taxi business and begins to work with personal transportation. Waymo currently provides more than 250,000 trips per week in several US cities, including Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The expansion into the private car segment opens up new opportunities for the company in the global market.

However, the main challenge for autonomous vehicles remains regulatory constraints. In Japan, as in most countries, legislation still requires the mandatory presence of a driver who can intervene in the driving, even if the car is equipped with autopilot systems. This significantly slows down the mass implementation of such solutions in the market.

Despite these difficulties, the collaboration between Toyota and Waymo could be an important step towards the real use of autonomous cars in everyday life.

Recall, it recently became known that Waymo wants to allow people to buy its robo-taxis for personal use.