Alphabet’s Waymo is in talks with South Korea’s Hyundai Motor to outsource manufacturing of its self-driving automobiles, South Korean newspaper, Digital Instances, reported.
Officers at Waymo and Hyundai Motor have met greater than 3 times to debate a plan to make use of Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 electrical automobiles for Waymo’s sixth-generation self-driving know-how, the report stated, including that the automobiles would substitute the choices from China’s Zeekr, which Waymo is presently testing.
The report got here as President Joe Biden’s administration final week locked in steep tariff hikes on Chinese language imports, together with a 100% responsibility on electrical automobiles, which can take impact on Sept. 27.
Relating to the media report, Waymo stated in a press release to Reuters: “We’ll decline to touch upon hypothesis, however I can share that we’re arduous at work validating the Sixth-generation Waymo Driver on the Zeekr platform and intend to introduce it into our fleet when prepared.”
Hyundai Motor Group stated “nothing is set at this stage about new companies,” referring to its plan to promote its automobile platform to self-driving know-how firms.
Motional, a self-driving know-how unit of Hyundai Motor Group, earlier this yr delayed plans to launch a robotaxi service with its next-generation Hyundai Ioniq 5 robotaxis till 2026 because it laid off a whole bunch of staff in the USA, TechCrunch reported in Might.
Waymo has bought automobiles from Stellantis and Jaguar Land Rover and built-in its know-how into the bottom automobiles to supply autonomous ride-hailing companies in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Waymo can also be testing automobiles from Zeekr outfitted with its next-generation know-how. Zeekr is the electrical automobile model of China’s Geely Car Holdings.
Alphabet stated in July that it deliberate a USD 5 billion funding in Waymo over a multi-year interval, as the corporate is increasing its autonomous ride-hailing service areas.
