SEOUL (Reuters) – Alphabet (NASDAQ:)’s Waymo is in talks with South Korea’s Hyundai Motor (OTC:) to outsource manufacturing of its self-driving automobiles, South Korean newspaper, Digital Occasions, reported.
Officers at Waymo and Hyundai Motor have met greater than thrice to debate a plan to make use of Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 electrical automobiles for Waymo’s sixth-generation self-driving expertise, the report stated, including that the plan contains changing choices from China’s Zeekr with the Ioniq 5 fashions.
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 is able to take impact on Sept. 27.
Concerning the media report, Waymo stated in an announcement to Reuters: “We’ll decline to touch upon hypothesis, however I can share that we’re laborious at work validating the Sixth-generation Waymo Driver on the Zeekr platform and intend to introduce it into our fleet when prepared.”
Zeekr stated: “There isn’t any change to Zeekr’s partnership with Waymo,” including that they’re “actively working collectively to deploy the automobiles.”
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 expertise firms.
Motional, a self-driving expertise unit of Hyundai Motor Group, earlier this 12 months delayed plans to launch a robotaxi service with its next-generation Hyundai Ioniq 5 robotaxis till 2026 because it laid off tons of of employees in the USA, TechCrunch reported in Might.
Waymo has bought automobiles from Stellantis (NYSE:) and Jaguar Land Rover and built-in its expertise into the bottom automobiles to supply autonomous ride-hailing companies in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Waymo can be testing its next-generation self-driving automobile expertise utilizing automobiles from Zeekr, the electrical automobile model of China’s Geely Car Holdings (OTC:).
Alphabet stated in July that it deliberate a $5 billion funding in Waymo over a multi-year interval, as the corporate is increasing its autonomous ride-hailing service areas.
