Waymo readies autonomous cars for first international tests in Japan

Next week, Waymo’s driverless vehicles volition begin investigating connected nationalist roads successful Japan for the Alphabet company’s archetypal planetary trip. Waymo has yet to corroborate whether it volition yet motorboat a commercialized robotaxi work successful the country, but the institution is inactive celebrating the excursion arsenic a “significant milestone.”

Waymo describes it arsenic a elemental “road trip” for collecting information astir the nuances of Japanese driving, including left-hand postulation and navigating a dense municipality environment. The vehicles volition beryllium driven manually for the purposes of gathering mapping information and volition beryllium managed by a section taxi fleet operator, Nihon Kotsu. About 25 vehicles are being sent, with the archetypal already having been spotted successful a parking batch successful Tokyo. 

As noted by the LinkedIn user who posted the pictures, Waymo’s engineers volition person their enactment chopped retired for them. Tokyo has its stock of idiosyncratic environments, including “tight, winding roads” and thousands of pedestrians and cyclists seamlessly merging with conveyance traffic. 

Waymo says trained drivers employed by Nihon Kotsu volition manually navigate the vehicles crossed 7 cardinal Tokyo wards, including Minato, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Chiyoda, Chūō, Shinagawa, and Kōtō. Waymo operates manually erstwhile archetypal arriving successful a caller metropolis truthful its engineers tin cod information connected section postulation patterns and roadworthy features. 

Even though the company’s vehicles person lone conscionable arrived, Waymo says it’s already been laying the groundwork, grooming drivers and fleet managers from GO, a fashionable taxi app successful Japan. The institution has besides been coordinating with section officials, authorities agencies, and archetypal responders for the test. 

“In Tokyo, we are abiding by the aforesaid steadfast principles that usher america successful the U.S. — committedness to safety, dedication to earning spot successful communities wherever we operate, and collaboration with section officials and assemblage groups present successful Tokyo,” said Nicole Gavel, caput of concern improvement and strategical partnerships astatine Waymo, successful a statement.

Waymo presently operates a commercialized robotaxi work successful San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin, with imminent plans to grow to Silicon Valley, Atlanta, Miami, and Washington, DC. The institution has besides said it volition conduct roadworthy travel tests successful San Diego and Las Vegas.

As Waymo tests its vehicles successful Japan, the state straight to the westbound of the land federation is ramping up its ain driverless operations. China’s Apollo Go robotaxi work says it completed 1.1 cardinal paid driverless rides successful the 4th fourth of 2024 and is expanding to Hong Kong soon. Like Waymo, Apollo Go says it is performing an mean of 200,000 paid trips each week.