Honda Motor aims to set up a joint venture with General Motors and Cruise to begin a driverless ride service in Japan in early 2026.Cruise will be sending the first of its self-driving test vehicles to Japan and start development for testing this year.
source-image: honda
With this new service, the Cruise Origin, jointly developed by GM, Cruise and Honda and purpose built for a driverless ridehail service, will come pick up the customers at a specified location and drive them to the destination, entirely through self-driving. Customers will use a dedicated app on their smart phones to complete the entire process from hailing to payment.
source-image: honda
The Cruise Origin is a self-driving vehicle with no driver’s seat or steering wheel. It features a vast cabin space that can be as private as a personally-owned vehicle and that allows 6 people to ride simultaneously, facing-to-face.
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This driverless ridehail service will offer an entirely new kind of mobility experience in Japan and target a wide range of customers, including business people, families, visitors and more.
source-image: honda
The three companies are planning to launch the driverless ridehail service in central Tokyo in early 2026. The service will start with dozens of Cruise Origins, and then expand to a fleet of 500 Cruise Origins. The three companies plan to subsequently expand and scale the service to areas outside of central Tokyo.
