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Waymo and Japanese Partners Plan Driverless Taxi Service for Tokyo in 2027

morning · · thread: Waymo to Launch Autonomous Robotaxis in Munich by 2027

4 sources across 2 countries · Japan · United Kingdom

Who reported this

  • Asahi Shimbun Japan · Centre-left · Asahi Shimbun Company (family and employee held)
  • Kyodo News Japan · Centre · Non-profit publisher cooperative
  • The Japan Times Japan · Centre · News2u Holdings
  • Reuters United Kingdom · Centre · Thomson Reuters Corporation

What the colours mean

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  • Centre-left
  • Centre
  • Centre-right
  • Right
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Go Inc. Waymo LLC, and Nihon Kotsu Co. aim to launch Japan's first fully driverless taxi service in Tokyo in 2027. The partnership plans to gradually introduce approximately 100 autonomous taxis. Under the agreement, Go will provide taxi hailing app expertise, Waymo will provide the self driving technology, and Nihon Kotsu will handle operations management. The companies have conducted test runs on public roads in seven Tokyo wards since 2025 to adapt the technology to the city's roads. While automated vehicles already operate on fixed routes in Japan, a fully driverless taxi hailed via an app in urban areas represents a significant step toward wider adoption. Separately, Nissan Motor Co. and Uber Technologies Inc. announced a robotaxi project with trial operations planned for Tokyo in the latter half of this year. One center leaning source noted that autonomous driving was previously viewed as a pipe dream in Japan due to strict regulations and crowded, narrow streets.

How each side framed it

Centre-left
This source provided a concise summary of the announcement without additional framing.
Centre
These sources focused on the operational details, the partnership structure, and the timeline for the rollout.

Sources

100% of the statements in this article were traced back to the source articles listed above.