Waymo, the autonomous taxi service under Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has announced its plans to start driving in order to collect data in the metropolitan area of Tokyo, Japan. All vehicles in this testing phase will have a human driver behind the wheel to control the steering wheel. The testing will kick off next week in 7 districts of Tokyo, including Minato and Shibuya.
The initiation of Waymo’s testing in Tokyo marks a significant milestone as it is the first time autonomous vehicles will be running on public roads outside of the United States. This also marks the first testing of right-hand-drive autonomous vehicles. Waymo unveiled its service plans starting from December last year, using 25 electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles.
Waymo’s vehicles will operate in collaboration with Nihon Kotsu, a major taxi company in Japan, and Go, a ride-hailing platform that Nihon Kotsu has a stake in. After collecting data, the next step will be to operate fully autonomous taxi services with backup human staff. However, Waymo has not disclosed when the next phase of service will commence.
TLDR: Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous taxi service, is set to start driving to gather data in Tokyo, Japan, with human drivers initially controlling the vehicles. This marks the first testing of autonomous vehicles on public roads outside the US, using electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles. Collaboration with Nihon Kotsu and Go is key, with plans for fully autonomous services in the future.
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