You will soon be able to see Waymo self-driving technology in Hyundai cars. Self-driving technology developer Waymo said this week it would partner with Korean automaker Hyundai to equip a fleet of its electric vehicles with self-driving technology. The vehicles, modified Ioniq 5s, will hit the road as part of Waymo’s autonomous transportation service in late 2025, the companies said.
In a statement, Hyundai Motor Company President and Global Chief Operating Officer José Muñoz called the deal a “first step” in the two companies’ partnership. “We are actively exploring additional opportunities for collaboration,” he said, opening up the possibility that Waymo self-driving technology could one day be installed in Hyundai passenger vehicles.
However, the multinational partnership is the latest to raise questions about how Waymo, arguably the world’s most successful self-driving company, will handle a global realignment of the auto industry.
China’s new dominance in auto manufacturing and exports has worried other global automakers, some of which have argued that the country has unfair trade advantages. Over the past year, Western countries have built stronger trade walls to prevent the incursion of low-cost Chinese electric and autonomous vehicles. Last month, the United States finalized rules that sharply increased tariffs against electric vehicles and battery materials made in China.
The U.S. Commerce Department also proposed a rule last month that would ban some automotive hardware and software made in China and Russia in the U.S., with an emphasis on technology that enables autonomy. Just this week, the European Union voted to increase tariffs on electric vehicles made in China.
Interestingly, Waymo insists that a partnership with Chinese automaker Zeekr is still in place. In the deal, announced in late 2021, Zeekr has built more spacious autonomous minivans for the Alphabet subsidiary that are also less expensive to manufacture. The Zeekr vehicle officially debuted in San Francisco in June, although Waymo says it is still in testing and is not yet part of its public transportation fleet.
Zeekr is owned by Chinese automaker Geely, although its design center and one of its research and development facilities are located in Gothenburg, Sweden. The Swedish city is also the headquarters of carmakers Volvo and Polestar, a premium all-electric carmaker majority owned by Geely.
In an email on Friday, Waymo spokesperson Chris Bonelli wrote that the Hyundai Ioniq 5 “will not replace any of our other vehicle platforms” and said the company is “working hard to validate” the latest version of the technology. from Waymo on the Zeekr platform.
In proposing new rules targeting Chinese-made auto software and hardware, the US government argued that such technology installed in US vehicles could create a long-term national security problem. “Imagine if there were thousands or hundreds of thousands of Chinese-connected vehicles on American roads that someone in Beijing could immediately and simultaneously disable,” US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said earlier this year.
but in public comments presented to the Commerce Department in April, Waymo representatives insisted that, despite its partnership with the Chinese automaker, China has nothing to do with the vital technology of the Zeekr-made robotaxi. “The AV-ready base vehicles provided to Waymo do not have built-in telematics or driving automation capabilities,” the company wrote, saying only U.S.-based Waymo staff install autonomous technology into vehicles in a factory. US. The company said that once operating in the U.S., the vehicles cannot remotely communicate with the vehicle’s manufacturer: Zeekr.