Geely’s Zeekr to build autonomous vehicles for Waymo
Zeekr, Geely Holding Group’s premium electric brand, announced Tuesday that it will manufacture vehicles for Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo One, the company’s autonomous ride-hailing service throughout the United States.
“By becoming a strategic partner and vehicle supplier to the Waymo One fleet, we will be able to share our experience, ideals and provide our expertise in collaborating on a fully electric vehicle that fits Waymo’s requirements for this rapidly expanding segment in the global market,” said Andy An, CEO, Zeekr Technology, in a statement.
A vehicle designed in Europe
The new vehicle will be designed and developed for Waymo One at Geely’s China Europe Vehicle Technology Centre in Gothenburg, Sweden using Zeekr’s new proprietary, open-source vehicle architecture. Once the vehicles are delivered to Waymo, the company will integrate its Waymo Driver autonomous driving software into the vehicle. The companies made no mention of where it would be built. Currently, all of Geely’s electric vehicles, including the new Polestar 2 EV sold in the U.S., are built in China.
The inside story
Zeekr’s new vehicle was designed for autonomous ride-hailing scenarios, with what the company claims is a “rider-centric” design. Aside from the lack of driver controls, how this model differs from other minivans remains unclear. But it will be a fully configurable cabin, both with and without driver controls.
Photos released Tuesday reveal a cabin accessed by two siding doors on each side of the minivan. The vehicle seats five, and has no apparent controls other than touchscreen mounted in the middle of the instrument panel.
A new company lands a big deal
Geely established Zeekr in 2021 as a global technology-mobility brand. The company’s design and engineering is carried out in Sweden. The company unveiled its first model the Zeekr 001, in April 2021, with deliveries following in October of the same year. Certainly, landing the deal with Waymo helps give the Chinese automaker greater access to the U.S. market.
For Waymo, the deal gives them a jump on their competitors. Having been first to establish autonomous taxi service in Phoenix, Arizona about a year ago after testing in more than 13 states, could be facing competition in the near future.
Ford and Volkswagen’s autonomous vehicles
Both Volkswagen and Ford Motor Company have allied with Argo AI to develop self-driving vehicles.
In July, Ford Motor Company and Argo AI announced a fleet of autonomous vehicles to Lyft in Miami, with plans to expand to Austin in 2022. By mid-decade, Ford and Lyft said they will have roughly 1,000 autonomous vehicles in operation across the country.
“This collaboration marks the first time all the pieces of the autonomous vehicle puzzle have come together this way,“ Lyft co-founder and CEO Logan Green said in a statement at the time.
And in May 2021, Volkswagen Group and its Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles division began testing self-driving Volkswagen ID. BUZZ electric vehicle prototypes in Munich. The company plans to implement Level 4 autonomous driving vans for light commercial use through the use of lidar, radar and cameras.
General Motors is testing AVs as well
Cruise LLC, an autonomous vehicle company majority owned by GM, has been testing self-driving taxis in San Francisco for several years, and is hoping to build 1 million self-driving vehicles by 2030. That would be a tall order, given the hurdles the company could face with federal and state regulators. But the company has met with some success, being the first to receive permission from regulators in California to provide a driverless AV Taxi service. Cruise has also been named as the exclusive AV rideshare service in Dubai, and is working with Honda to initiate AV testing in Japan.
But getting the approval of regulators is a hurdle all AV hopefuls must conquer, affecting the speed with which they can come to market.
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