Toyota starts collaborating with Waymo on autonomous cars

TOKYO

Japan’s top automaker Toyota announced a partnership with U.S. autonomous driving technology company Waymo Wednesday.

The move was somewhat anticipated, as the use of such technology speeds up around the world, and Toyota has been aggressive about its intention to stay on top of such advances.

Waymo, which started out as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009, now offers fully autonomous ride-hailing services in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Austin, and is rolling them out in other U.S. cities. It also has a partnership with ride-hailing leader Uber .

Toyota has built a city, complete with streets and housing, near Mount Fuji called Woven City to test robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous zero-emissions transportation.

The maker of the Camry sedan and Lexus luxury models tends to be very cautious about rolling out auto technology, seeking to protect its reputation as a safe and environmentally conscious manufacturer.

Details of the terms of the deal were not disclosed. Both sides said they were still exploring how their collaboration might develop into actual products.

Although there are various test versions of fully autonomous vehicles in Japan, they are for now limited to certain restricted areas. Other companies and automakers are working on similar services , including public transportation.