According to the Zhitong Finance APP, the USA technology giant Alphabet's Waymo announced on Monday local time that it plans to start testing its Self-Driving Cars based on a self-driving model in Tokyo, Japan, in early 2025, which is the first step for the leader in the self-driving field towards international market expansion.

The goal of Waymo's plan is to test, but it has not committed to launching any commercial self-driving operation services in Tokyo. However, this leader in self-driving taxis will collaborate deeply with Nihon Kotsu, the largest taxi operator in Japan, as well as with taxi and Online Car-hailing application software GO to prepare for the testing of its Jaguar I-PACE self-driving vehicles on the streets of Tokyo.

First, Nihon Kotsu drivers will manually drive Waymo vehicles for comprehensive mapping of key areas in Japan's capital, including the Minato, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Chiyoda, Chuo, Shinagawa, and Koto wards.

Data from the passenger test drives will help train the company's AI supercomputing system. Waymo also plans to test its self-driving taxis on a closed course in the USA, designed to simulate the driving environment of Tokyo, Japan.

A Waymo spokesperson stated that this is the first phase of the collaboration on self-driving taxis between the two parties, which will last for several quarters, and also mentioned that the company expects to stay longer in Japan.

"The journey we are about to take to Tokyo gives us the opportunity to collaborate with local partners, government officials, and community groups to understand the new conditions," Waymo stated in a release. "We will learn how Waymo can provide convenient and efficient services to Tokyo residents and become a valuable part of the city's transportation ecosystem."

The company's statement indicated that Nihon Kotsu will be responsible for managing and maintaining Waymo vehicles in Japan.

Waymo announced a series of expansions across the USA in 2024. Earlier this month, the company announced new self-driving taxi tests in Miami scheduled for 2025. It is understood that in November, Waymo launched an unmanned self-driving car-hailing service in Los Angeles. In September, the company announced plans to collaborate with the online car-hailing giant Uber Technologies to extend its business to Austin and Atlanta.

Entering the Japanese market marks the company's first entry into an international market with left-hand traffic regulations.

According to research by the World Economic Forum, both the Japanese government and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government consider self-driving technology a potential 'gospel technology' to solve the country's aging population problem.

The Tokyo government has fully cooperated with this self-driving taxi company, designating certain areas as 'test zones' for self-driving cars, hoping to accelerate the realization of a safe, convenient, and efficient self-driving transportation system.

In Japan, several automotive technology developers are working on self-driving taxis, including local startup Tier IV and ZMP, a technology company focusing on robotics, which is testing unmanned delivery vehicles and self-driving shuttle buses in Tokyo. Monet Technologies, partly owned by Japanese automotive giant Toyota, announced earlier this year plans to begin testing self-driving taxi services soon in the Odaiba area of Tokyo.

A week before Waymo announced its expansion into international markets, General Motors announced it would abandon its Cruise self-driving taxi business unit. Cruise’s external investor, Honda Motor, indicated that its original plan to launch unmanned car-hailing services in Japan in early 2026 would now be reassessed and adjusted as necessary.

Before General Motors officially decided to exit the self-driving taxi business, Cruise had been one of Waymo's main competitors in the USA, rather than Tesla. Waymo and Cruise had previously obtained commercial operating licenses in several American cities, while Tesla has yet to apply for the relevant licenses, and its Robotaxi plans are still in the early stages.

Waymo is far ahead of Tesla in the development of Self-Driving Cars.

Compared to Musk's "grand promises", Waymo's progress in the Online Car-hailing sector based on Self-Driving Cars is significantly faster than Tesla's (TSLA.US) Robotaxi, which is still stuck in the stages of imagination and planning. Moreover, Waymo has already outpaced Tesla in terms of the maturity of Self-Driving technology and actual commercial application.

Since 2020, Waymo has provided fully Self-Driving taxi services in Phoenix and has gradually expanded to cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles. By 2024, Waymo offers over 150,000 paid rides per week, and its Self-Driving fleet travels over 1 million miles weekly. Waymo has achieved large-scale commercial Operation in several cities (such as Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco) and plans to further expand its Self-Driving taxi services to Austin and Atlanta.

Waymo currently employs a specially designed sixth-generation Self-Driving system, equipped with multiple radars, Lidar, and cameras, capable of high-precision perception under various weather conditions. Tesla, on the other hand, primarily relies on its "Full Self-Driving" (FSD) feature, which still requires human driver supervision and has not yet reached the level of fully Self-Driving.

Tesla's "FSD based on fully Self-Driving mode" still needs to wait for official approval from the USA government, and this FSD technology is also the core of the Robotaxi. Tesla plans to launch its Robotaxi Self-Driving service (named Cybercab) in 2026, but currently, it has only showcased prototype vehicles and has not yet entered the commercial phase. Furthermore, the core technology that Robotaxi relies on—fully Self-Driving mode FSD—requires review and approval.

The Trump 2.0 era is approaching; is Tesla waiting for a savior?

As Trump is set to return to the White House next January, the approval progress for Tesla's FSD and Robotaxi may accelerate. Senior Analyst Dan Ives from Wedbush and his team believe that Trump's return to the White House will fundamentally change the narrative around Tesla and CEO Musk's companies in the coming years regarding AI, Self-Driving Cars, and Tesla's AI supercomputer system. In Ives's team's view, after Trump's return to the presidency, the future approval progress from the USA federal government regarding Tesla's FSD full Self-Driving and Robotaxi may see significant acceleration.

Ives's team emphasizes: "We estimate that the development opportunities in AI and Self-Driving for Tesla alone are worth 1 trillion dollars. We fully expect that under Trump's leadership of the new USA government, these key initiatives will be expedited. Because Trump once promised to let Musk lead the so-called Government Efficiency Committee to oversee the efficiency of federal government operations, the federal regulatory spider web that Tesla encountered in the past few years around FSD/AIsupercomputer-based Self-Driving will be significantly cleared in the new era under Trump's leadership."

According to reports, Wedbush has significantly raised its 12-month target price for Tesla from $400 to $515 in its latest report, making it the highest target price on Wall Street. The institution also provided a bullish target price of $650 under an "optimistic scenario", which would increase Tesla's Market Cap to approximately $2.1 trillion. As of Monday's market close, Tesla shares were at $463.020, representing an 85% increase since Trump's victory in November.