diff --git a/packages/playwright-core/src/cli/driver.ts b/packages/playwright-core/src/cli/driver.ts
index 8252acca07..3a64be7cca 100644
--- a/packages/playwright-core/src/cli/driver.ts
+++ b/packages/playwright-core/src/cli/driver.ts
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ import { BrowserType } from '../client/browserType';
 import { LaunchServerOptions } from '../client/types';
 import { DispatcherConnection, Root } from '../dispatchers/dispatcher';
 import { PlaywrightDispatcher } from '../dispatchers/playwrightDispatcher';
-import { Transport } from '../protocol/transport';
+import { IpcTransport, PipeTransport } from '../protocol/transport';
 import { PlaywrightServer } from '../remote/playwrightServer';
 import { createPlaywright } from '../server/playwright';
 import { gracefullyCloseAll } from '../utils/processLauncher';
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ export function runDriver() {
     const playwright = createPlaywright(sdkLanguage);
     return new PlaywrightDispatcher(rootScope, playwright);
   });
-  const transport = new Transport(process.stdout, process.stdin);
+  const transport = process.send ? new IpcTransport(process) : new PipeTransport(process.stdout, process.stdin);
   transport.onmessage = message => dispatcherConnection.dispatch(JSON.parse(message));
   dispatcherConnection.onmessage = message => transport.send(JSON.stringify(message));
   transport.onclose = async () => {
diff --git a/packages/playwright-core/src/outofprocess.ts b/packages/playwright-core/src/outofprocess.ts
index 89cfdcbd52..9bfae2895b 100644
--- a/packages/playwright-core/src/outofprocess.ts
+++ b/packages/playwright-core/src/outofprocess.ts
@@ -15,10 +15,11 @@
  */
 
 import { Connection } from './client/connection';
-import { Transport } from './protocol/transport';
+import { IpcTransport } from './protocol/transport';
 import { Playwright } from './client/playwright';
 import * as childProcess from 'child_process';
 import * as path from 'path';
+import { ManualPromise } from './utils/async';
 
 export async function start(env: any = {}): Promise<{ playwright: Playwright, stop: () => Promise<void> }> {
   const client = new PlaywrightClient(env);
@@ -30,16 +31,13 @@ export async function start(env: any = {}): Promise<{ playwright: Playwright, st
 class PlaywrightClient {
   _playwright: Promise<Playwright>;
   _driverProcess: childProcess.ChildProcess;
-  private _closePromise: Promise<void>;
-  private _onExit: (exitCode: number | null, signal: string | null) => {};
+  private _closePromise = new ManualPromise<void>();
+  private _transport: IpcTransport;
+  private _stopped = false;
 
   constructor(env: any) {
-    this._onExit = (exitCode: number | null, signal: string | null) => {
-      throw new Error(`Server closed with exitCode=${exitCode} signal=${signal}`);
-    };
-
     this._driverProcess = childProcess.fork(path.join(__dirname, 'cli', 'cli.js'), ['run-driver'], {
-      stdio: 'pipe',
+      stdio: ['inherit', 'inherit', 'inherit', 'ipc'],
       detached: true,
       env: {
         ...process.env,
@@ -47,22 +45,28 @@ class PlaywrightClient {
       },
     });
     this._driverProcess.unref();
-    this._driverProcess.on('exit', this._onExit);
+    this._driverProcess.on('exit', this._onExit.bind(this));
 
     const connection = new Connection();
-    const transport = new Transport(this._driverProcess.stdin!, this._driverProcess.stdout!);
-    connection.onmessage = message => transport.send(JSON.stringify(message));
-    transport.onmessage = message => connection.dispatch(JSON.parse(message));
-    this._closePromise = new Promise(f => transport.onclose = f);
+    this._transport = new IpcTransport(this._driverProcess);
+    connection.onmessage = message => this._transport.send(JSON.stringify(message));
+    this._transport.onmessage = message => connection.dispatch(JSON.parse(message));
+    this._transport.onclose = () => this._closePromise.resolve();
 
     this._playwright = connection.initializePlaywright();
   }
 
   async stop() {
-    this._driverProcess.removeListener('exit', this._onExit);
-    this._driverProcess.stdin!.destroy();
-    this._driverProcess.stdout!.destroy();
-    this._driverProcess.stderr!.destroy();
+    this._stopped = true;
+    this._transport.close();
     await this._closePromise;
   }
+
+  private _onExit(exitCode: number | null, signal: string | null) {
+    if (this._stopped)
+      this._closePromise.resolve();
+    else
+      throw new Error(`Server closed with exitCode=${exitCode} signal=${signal}`);
+  }
+
 }
diff --git a/packages/playwright-core/src/protocol/transport.ts b/packages/playwright-core/src/protocol/transport.ts
index 9b4be17edf..e23ccb683d 100644
--- a/packages/playwright-core/src/protocol/transport.ts
+++ b/packages/playwright-core/src/protocol/transport.ts
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
  * limitations under the License.
  */
 
+import { ChildProcess } from 'child_process';
 import { makeWaitForNextTask } from '../utils/utils';
 
 export interface WritableStream {
@@ -29,7 +30,7 @@ export interface ClosableStream {
   close(): void;
 }
 
-export class Transport {
+export class PipeTransport {
   private _pipeWrite: WritableStream;
   private _data = Buffer.from([]);
   private _waitForNextTask = makeWaitForNextTask();
@@ -102,3 +103,27 @@ export class Transport {
     }
   }
 }
+
+export class IpcTransport {
+  private _process: NodeJS.Process | ChildProcess;
+  onmessage?: (message: string) => void;
+  onclose?: () => void;
+
+  constructor(process: NodeJS.Process | ChildProcess) {
+    this._process = process;
+    this._process.on('message', message => {
+      if (message === '<eof>')
+        this.onclose?.();
+      else
+        this.onmessage?.(message);
+    });
+  }
+
+  send(message: string) {
+    this._process.send!(message);
+  }
+
+  close() {
+    this._process.send!('<eof>');
+  }
+}
diff --git a/packages/playwright-core/src/server/android/android.ts b/packages/playwright-core/src/server/android/android.ts
index 40d823c59b..1f5899cc98 100644
--- a/packages/playwright-core/src/server/android/android.ts
+++ b/packages/playwright-core/src/server/android/android.ts
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ import { BrowserContext, validateBrowserContextOptions } from '../browserContext
 import { ProgressController } from '../progress';
 import { CRBrowser } from '../chromium/crBrowser';
 import { helper } from '../helper';
-import { Transport } from '../../protocol/transport';
+import { PipeTransport } from '../../protocol/transport';
 import { RecentLogsCollector } from '../../utils/debugLogger';
 import { TimeoutSettings } from '../../utils/timeoutSettings';
 import { AndroidWebView } from '../../protocol/channels';
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ export class AndroidDevice extends SdkObject {
   readonly _backend: DeviceBackend;
   readonly model: string;
   readonly serial: string;
-  private _driverPromise: Promise<Transport> | undefined;
+  private _driverPromise: Promise<PipeTransport> | undefined;
   private _lastId = 0;
   private _callbacks = new Map<number, { fulfill: (result: any) => void, reject: (error: Error) => void }>();
   private _pollingWebViews: NodeJS.Timeout | undefined;
@@ -155,13 +155,13 @@ export class AndroidDevice extends SdkObject {
     return await this._backend.runCommand(`shell:screencap -p`);
   }
 
-  private async _driver(): Promise<Transport> {
+  private async _driver(): Promise<PipeTransport> {
     if (!this._driverPromise)
       this._driverPromise = this._installDriver();
     return this._driverPromise;
   }
 
-  private async _installDriver(): Promise<Transport> {
+  private async _installDriver(): Promise<PipeTransport> {
     debug('pw:android')('Stopping the old driver');
     await this.shell(`am force-stop com.microsoft.playwright.androiddriver`);
 
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ export class AndroidDevice extends SdkObject {
     debug('pw:android')('Starting the new driver');
     this.shell('am instrument -w com.microsoft.playwright.androiddriver.test/androidx.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner').catch(e => debug('pw:android')(e));
     const socket = await this._waitForLocalAbstract('playwright_android_driver_socket');
-    const transport = new Transport(socket, socket, socket, 'be');
+    const transport = new PipeTransport(socket, socket, socket, 'be');
     transport.onmessage = message => {
       const response = JSON.parse(message);
       const { id, result, error } = response;
diff --git a/utils/check_deps.js b/utils/check_deps.js
index 1fda1853f2..d471921c31 100644
--- a/utils/check_deps.js
+++ b/utils/check_deps.js
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ DEPS['src/protocol/'] = ['src/utils/'];
 
 // Client depends on chromium protocol for types.
 DEPS['src/client/'] = ['src/common/', 'src/utils/', 'src/protocol/', 'src/server/chromium/protocol.d.ts'];
-DEPS['src/outofprocess.ts'] = ['src/client/', 'src/protocol/'];
+DEPS['src/outofprocess.ts'] = ['src/client/', 'src/protocol/', 'src/utils/'];
 
 DEPS['src/dispatchers/'] = ['src/common/', 'src/utils/', 'src/protocol/', 'src/server/**'];