Toyota Motor Corporation and Alphabet’s self-driving unit, Waymo, have announced a new partnership to explore the development of an advanced autonomous vehicle (AV) platform and expand the capabilities of next-generation personally owned vehicles (POVs).
According to a Waymo spokesperson, Toyota will lead the construction of this new platform, which will be integrated into Waymo’s fleet of autonomous vehicles. The collaboration also aims to investigate how Waymo’s cutting-edge AV technology can be embedded into future Toyota POVs, potentially reshaping the market for individual car ownership in an autonomous future.
In a joint statement, both companies emphasized their shared goal: “accelerating the development and adoption of driver assistance and automated driving technologies for personally owned vehicles.”
Woven by Toyota Joins the Effort
Woven by Toyota, the automaker’s dedicated autonomous tech division, will play a key role in this initiative. Woven is already working on Arene, a next-gen automotive software platform, and Woven City, a fully connected testbed for mobility innovations under construction in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Strengthening Global AV Collaborations
Waymo, which spun out of Google in 2016, continues to build a strong global presence through strategic collaborations. In addition to Toyota, Waymo has partnered with companies like Hyundai, Zeekr, and ride-hailing platform Uber. These partnerships are still active, according to a company spokesperson.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai recently hinted that privately owned Waymo vehicles could become a reality in the near future, a move that would shift the company’s business model beyond fleet operations to include direct-to-consumer offerings.
Meanwhile, Waymo has begun mapping Tokyo with human-driven test vehicles to better understand the city’s infrastructure and driving dynamics — a signal that international expansion is on the horizon.
