Investing.com-- Toyota Motor Corp (TYO: 7203 ) and Alphabet Inc’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL )’s Waymo on Wednesday announced a partnership to collaborate over developing and deploying autonomous driving technology.
The two companies said in a joint statement that they planned to build a new autonomous vehicle platform, and that they will also work on introducing autonomous driving into personal vehicles. Toyota- the world’s biggest automaker by volume- could implement autonomous driving in its next generation of vehicles.
The partnership comes amid increased market interest in full self-driving technology (FSD), which electric vehicle maker Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA ) has touted as the next leg of growth for automakers.
Tesla shares fell 1.4% after Toyota and Waymo’s announcement, given that it likely heralds more competition for the EV major’s FSD plans.
Reports in mid-2024 had shown Toyota (NYSE: TM ) was working on its own autonomous EV through a joint venture in China, although the company has provided few details on the venture.
The partnership comes after Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said during the company’s earnings call last week that Waymo was considering developing personal autonomous vehicles.
Waymo offers robotaxi services across several major U.S. cities, and has also tied up with Uber (NYSE: UBER ) in some regions. The company has steadily grown from an early-stage research and development firm to a commercial operation.