For the past few years, Waymo has focused on expanding its Waymo One ride-hailing service. Waymo is now beginning to look beyond that in partnering with Toyota.
The two companies today announced a “preliminary agreement to explore a collaboration focused on accelerating the development and deployment of autonomous driving technologies.”
The scope of the collaboration will continue to evolve through ongoing discussions.
What’s confirmed today is how Toyota and Waymo will “develop a new autonomous vehicle platform.” The resulting Toyota vehicles with Waymo technology will be used for Waymo One.
This might be closer to a custom robotaxi instead of taking an existing model and adding the necessary sensors and computing, which has been the case with the Chrysler Pacifica, Jaguar I-Pace, and upcoming Hyundai Ioniq 5.
At the same time, Waymo and Toyota “will explore how to leverage Waymo’s autonomous technology and Toyota’s vehicle expertise to enhance next-generation personally owned vehicles (POVs).”
Waymo says it will “now begin to incorporate aspects of its technology for personally owned vehicles,” while continuing to expand its ride-hailing service. It’s looking forward to “bringing the magic of Waymo’s autonomous driving technology to Toyota customers.”
Toyota today emphasizes how it wants to “further accelerate the development and adoption of driver assistance and automated driving technologies for POVs, with a continued focus on safety and peace of mind.”
During Alphabet’s Q1 2025 earnings call last week, CEO Sundar Pichai said Waymo was “building up a network of partners” from Waymo One fleet management to “partnerships with OEMs” where there’s “future optionality around personal ownership.”
In general, there are many questions around buying a self-driving car that need to be addressed, especially around accidents and liability. Meanwhile, autonomous coverage is still far from universal.
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