Waymo is including the Hyundai Ioniq 5 to its robotaxi fleet

Waymo has its sights set on its subsequent robotaxi: the Hyundai Ioniq 5.

The Alphabet firm introduced that it was getting into a “multi-year, strategic” partnership with the Hyundai Motor Group that may outcome within the Ioniq 5 finally becoming a member of its robotaxi fleet.

However first, the Ioniq 5 might want to bear on-road testing with Waymo’s self-driving expertise, which the corporate says will start in late 2025. Waymo wouldn’t specify when the Ioniq 5 might be used for passenger journeys, besides to say it might be “years” later.

Automobiles supposed for Waymo’s fleet might be manufactured at Hyundai’s $7.6 billion Metaplant manufacturing unit in Georgia, which is nearing the top of its building. The businesses have agreed to provide a lot of Waymo-equipped electrical Hyundais there “in important quantity over a number of years,” Waymo stated in its press launch.

With robotaxis, one of the essential metrics is uptime, or the period of time it’s on the highway ferrying passengers. Time spent plugged right into a charger is time not getting cash. The Ioniq 5 is an electrical crossover SUV with somewhat over 300 miles of vary and an 800-volt structure that enhances its charging pace. When plugged right into a 350kW quick charger, Hyundai says the Ioniq 5 can cost from 10–80 p.c in simply 18 minutes, relying on the circumstances. Waymo actually noticed these charging speeds as a profit to its nonetheless unprofitable enterprise.

The Ioniq 5 has acquired favorable critiques because it was launched in late 2021, along with raking in quite a few awards. At present, it’s one of many bestselling EVs available on the market, with 30,000 offered within the US this yr alone. Its reputation has helped Hyundai, together with its sister firm Kia, overtake Ford and GM because the No. 2 vendor of EVs within the US behind Tesla.

At the moment, Waymo operates a fleet of a whole lot of Jaguar I-Tempo automobiles, which has been its main robotaxi automobile for the reason that firm’s first one, the Chrysler Pacifica minivan, was retired in 2013. The corporate has plans so as to add a brand new automobile made by Geely’s Zeekr — although the Biden administration’s current transfer to quadruple tariffs for electrical automobiles imported from China might complicate that.

Latest reporting from South Korea previewed at this time’s partnership information, with sources telling Digital Occasions that the 2 firms met quite a few occasions at Waymo’s headquarters in California to debate “contract manufacturing of robotaxis.” Sources additionally instructed the publication that Waymo was searching for a “substitute” for its Zeekr automobiles due to expensive new tariffs.

However Waymo pushed again in opposition to this report and reiterated its intention to finally deploy Zeekr. “The IONIQ 5 won’t straight change any of our automobile platforms, however it’ll assist us put together for added scale and development alternatives,” Waymo spokesperson Christopher Bonelli stated in an e-mail. Waymo is “exhausting at work” validating the sixth model of its self-driving expertise within the Zeekr automobile, he added.

Tellingly, Waymo isn’t saying what number of Ioniq 5s it plans to purchase from Hyundai, in distinction to its method to earlier automobile bulletins. A few of this could possibly be attributable to the truth that Waymo has grown extra cautious about overly optimistic predictions after critics panned the AV trade for setting unrealistic deadlines.

This gained’t be the Ioniq 5’s first self-driving rodeo. The automobile additionally serves as a platform for Motional, which is Hyundai’s robotaxi subsidiary, in addition to Avride, which was Yandex’s self-driving group.

However Waymo’s enterprise is considerably, effectively, busier than these companies. The corporate just lately celebrated a big milestone: 100,000 paid journeys every week.