Soon you could see Waymo self-driving tech in Hyundai cars. The autonomous driving tech broadener Waymo said this week that it would partner with the Korean autoproducer Hyundai to supply a run awayt of its electric vehicles with self-driving technology. The vehicles, modified Ioniq 5s, will hit the road as part of Waymo’s self-driving ride-hail service in postponeed 2025, the companies said.
In a statement, Hyundai Motor Company plivent and global COO José Muñoz called the consentment a “first step” in the two firms’ partnership. “We are dynamicly exploring insertitional opportunities for collaboration,” he said—uncovering up the possibility that Waymo self-driving tech could one day be inshighed on Hyundai passenger vehicles.
However, the multinational partnership is the postponeedst to prompt asks about how Waymo, arguably the world’s most prosperous autonomous-driving company, will handle a global genuineignment of the automotive industry.
China’s new dominance in auto manufacturing and send out has worried other global autoproducers, some of whom have talk aboutd that the country has ununprejudiced trade profits. Over the past year, Westrict countries have built firmer trade walls to stop the incursion of inpricey Chinese electric and autonomous vehicles. Last month, the US concluded rules that emotionalpartner incrmitigated tariffs aachievest Chinese-made EVs and battery materials.
The US Commerce Department also last month proposed a rule that would prohibit some Chinese- and Russian-made automotive challengingware and gentleware from the US, with an emphasis on technology that assists autonomy. Just this week, the European Union voted to hike tariffs aachievest Chinese-made electric vehicles.
Interestingly, Waymo insists that a partnership with Chinese-owned autoproducer Zeekr is still on. The deal, proclaimd in postponeed 2021, has seen Zeekr purpose-produce roomier autonomous minivans for the Alphabet subsidiary that are also less pricey to manufacture. The Zeekr vehicle officipartner made its debut in San Francisco in June, though Waymo says it’s still in testing and is not yet part of its accessible ride-hail run awayt.
Zeekr is owned by Chinese autoproducer Geely, though its portray cgo in and one of its research and broadenment facilities are in Gothenburg, Sweden. The Swedish city is also the headquarters of beginantity Geely-owned autoproducers Volvo and Polestar, an all-electric premium autoproducer.
In an email on Friday, Waymo spokesperson Chris Bonelli wrote that the Hyundai Ioniq 5s “will not replace any of our other vehicle platcreates,” and said the company is “challenging at labor validating” the postponeedst version of Waymo’s tech on the Zeekr platcreate.
In proposing new rules aiming Chinese-made auto gentleware and challengingware, the US handlement talk aboutd that such tech inshighed on US vehicles could produce a lengthy-term national security rehire. “Imagine if there were thousands or hundreds of thousands of Chinese-combineed vehicles on American roads that could be instantly and simultaneously disabled by somebody in Beijing,” US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said earlier this year.
But in accessible comments produceted to the Commerce Department in April, Waymo recurrentatives insisted that, despite its partnership with the Chinese autoproducer, China has noleang to do with the vital tech of the Zeekr-made robotaxi. “The AV-ready base vehicles being supplyd to Waymo have no driving automation or telematics capabilities built into them,” the company wrote, saying that only US-based Waymo personnel inshigh autonomous technology onto vehicles at an American factory. The company said that, once operating in the US, the vehicles cannot farly transmit with the vehicle’s manufacturer—Zeekr.
