Waymo aims for fully driverless Tokyo robotaxis in 2027 with GO and Nihon Kotsu

Alphabet-owned Waymo, Japanese taxi-app operator GO, and Tokyo taxi company Nihon Kotsu said they have agreed to prepare a commercial fully driverless ride-hailing service in Tokyo for 2027. Rides would be bookable in the GO and Waymo apps, starting with a small fleet and expanding toward about 100 vehicles across key neighborhoods — after regulatory approval and ongoing safety validation.

After opening Las Vegas to public riders the same day, Waymo is locking a concrete 2027 unmanned Tokyo commercial plan with Japan’s top taxi app and a century-old Tokyo fleet operator. That is how AV companies move from supervised testing abroad to a real city product — and it is still gated on Japanese permits.

Waymo, the self-driving unit owned by Alphabet — Google’s parent company — published “Opening our doors to Tokyo riders in 2027 with Nihon Kotsu and GO” on its company blog on 14 Sep 2026. It said Waymo, Nihon Kotsu, and GO have officially agreed to prepare for the commercial launch of an unmanned Tokyo ride-hailing service in 2027. A robotaxi is a self-driving taxi: you hail it in an app. Unmanned, fully driverless, and Level 4 here mean no human safety driver in the seat for commercial trips, but only under defined conditions. That company post is the filing event. These are company claims. Tokyo public rides are not live today.

The intent, as Waymo tells it, is to serve the first fully autonomous trips to public riders in Tokyo in 2027. The company said that timeline is contingent on securing regulatory approval from national and local authorities and completing ongoing validation of Waymo’s technology and the joint operations.

The service would be accessible through both the GO and Waymo apps, launching with an initial fleet before gradually expanding to around 100 vehicles across key Tokyo neighborhoods, the company blog, GO’s release, and Reuters all say.

Since Waymo arrived in Tokyo in 2025, the company said its vehicles have driven autonomously while supervised by trained Nihon Kotsu crew members. GO’s same-cycle release says the three companies have been testing on public roads across seven Tokyo wards — Minato, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Chiyoda, Chuo, Shinagawa, and Koto. This is not a public robotaxi service today.

Roles, as GO’s release assigns them: GO designs how the service fits Japan’s taxi industry and the GO app; Waymo supplies the autonomous technology, operations platform, and vehicle management; Nihon Kotsu handles on-the-ground operations.

Tekedra Mawakana, Waymo’s co-chief executive, quoted on the company blog: Waymo delivers over half a million trips each week and is “over 15 times safer than human drivers.” Reuters’ same-cycle wire quotes her in Tokyo saying, “From day one, this will be an unmanned service for the public.”

Hiroshi Nakajima, GO’s president, said users will be able to hail both conventional taxis and autonomous Waymo trips in the GO app, and that the companies are launching as a full commercial service. Yasuharu Wakabayashi, Nihon Kotsu’s president, said trained crew have been helping the Waymo Driver — Waymo’s name for the sensors and software that drive the car — adapt to Tokyo roads, and that the plan is meant to coexist with human-driven taxis while addressing future driver shortages. They are not a permit notice.