Initially, the American company Waymo, part of the Alphabet holding along with Google, used various production cars as prototypes for driverless taxis, equipping them with the appropriate hardware and software. According to rumors, South Korean Hyundai Motor may receive a contract for the production of serial robotic taxis Waymo.
Image source: Hyundai Motor
ET News recently reported this with reference to informed sources. According to reports, the management of Hyundai Motor and Waymo met at least three times to discuss this issue at the headquarters of the American company. The parties have a mutual interest in this project. Waymo gets an automated taxi supplier for its taxi fleet, and Hyundai enters a new market segment.
Now the fleet of Waymo prototypes in the United States is quite diverse, it includes adapted Jaguar I-Pace electric cars, Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans and even Chinese Zeekr electric cars from Geely. In total, Waymo operates about a thousand robotic taxis. One of the incentives to start negotiations with Hyundai was the upcoming increase in customs duties on Chinese-assembled electric vehicles imported into the United States, since Zeekr cars are supplied to this market from China. Waymo intended to install the sixth generation of autopilot equipment specifically on Zeekr electric vehicles.
Now, an alternative plan involves replacing Zeekr products with Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric vehicles. The equipment complex includes four lidars, six radars and several high-resolution cameras. In the fifth generation, the system uses five lidars, so reducing their number in the sixth should have a beneficial effect on the cost of the equipment. The new set of equipment includes more advanced radars, which are used to form an idea of the objects surrounding the vehicle. Waymo could source its robotaxis from Hyundai in Singapore, where similar Ioniq 5-based vehicles are already being produced for Motional’s needs. Representatives of Hyundai Motor refused to comment on rumors about possible cooperation with Waymo.