Waymo And Hyundai May Team Up For Next-Gen Robotaxis: Report

The autonomous ride hail start-up is reportedly in talks with Hyundai to deploy the Ioniq 5 as a robotaxi.

Photo by: InsideEVs

Suvrat Kothari

By: Suvrat Kothari

Sep 19, 2024 at 1:00pm ET

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Google parent Alphabet's autonomous ride hail startup Waymo is reportedly in talks with Hyundai deploy its Ioniq 5 electric crossovers as robotaxis.
Waymo plans to use Zeekr CM1e minivans for its next-gen robotaxis, but tariffs on Chinese-made EVs may be affecting its plans.

Waymo, the autonomous ride hail startup owned by Google's parent Alphabet is reportedly in talks with Hyundai to outsource manufacturing of self-driving cars, according to South Korean newspaper Electronic Times.

As per the report, Waymo and Hyundai have met several times to discuss integrating Hyundai Ioniq 5s into Waymo’s sixth-generation technology stack. This move is seen as a response to the 100% tariffs on Chinese-made vehicles in the U.S.—Waymo initially planned to use the Zeekr CM1e for its next-generation robotaxis.

However, Reuters reported that Waymo, Zeekr and Hyundai all declined to confirm these discussions.

Currently, Waymo operates its robotaxi fleet in four U.S. cities: San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Austin. It uses Jaguar I-Pace electric crossovers equipped with Waymo’s self-driving hardware and software to transport passengers on pre-mapped routes.

It’s the only company legally deploying Level 4 autonomous vehicles on public roads in the U.S.

Waymo said the the Zeekr minivan with its sixth generation self-driving system has more range and compute power. It has 13 cameras, four lidars, six radars and a suite of external audio receivers that can allow "overlapping fields of view, all around the vehicle, up to 500 meters away, day and night and in a range of weather conditions."

In simple words, the hardware and software work together to read the environment, process it and make real-time decisions to transport passengers. By comparison, Tesla’s Full-Self Driving (Supervised) is categorized as Level 2, while GM’s Cruise is testing Level 4 robotaxis in Dallas, Houston and Phoenix.

Last year, one of Cruise’s Chevy Bolt EV robotaxis dragged a pedestrian, triggering investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and the SEC, which led to a temporary suspension of Cruise’s operations.

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Waymo too is facing investigations from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for what the agency said involved several collisions and potential traffic law violations. But Waymo has been trying to quash concerns around safety by releasing safety data, hoping to build trust with consumers.

Its claims its cars have driven 22 million miles with riders in them as of June 2024. It claimed that compared to human drivers, Waymo robotaxis caused 84% fewer airbag deployment crashes, 73% fewer injury causing crashes and 48% fewer police reported crashes.