Hyundai Motor, Waymo forge multi-year, strategic partnership

South Korea’s top automaker Hyundai Motor Co. said on Friday it has entered into a multi-year strategic partnership with Waymo LLC to jointly develop a Level 4 autonomous vehicle based on Hyundai’s all-electric crossover SUV, the IONIQ 5.

In the first phase of the partnership, the two companies will integrate Waymo’s sixth-generation fully autonomous technology – the Waymo Driver – into the Hyundai IONIQ 5 SUV, which will be added to the Waymo One fleet over time.

The IONIQ 5 vehicles destined for the Waymo fleet will be assembled at the Korean automaker’s new plant in the US – Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA) EV manufacturing facility in Georgia – and then integrated with Waymo’s autonomous technology.

The partners plan to produce a fleet of autonomous IONIQ 5 vehicles equipped with Waymo’s technology in significant volumes over multiple years to support Waymo One’s increasing scale, the two companies said in a joint statement.

Initial on-road testing with Waymo-enabled IONIQ 5 vehicles will begin by late 2025.

“We are thrilled to partner with Hyundai as we further our mission to be the world’s most trusted driver,” said Tekedra Mawakana, co-CEO of Waymo. “Hyundai’s focus on sustainability and strong electric vehicle roadmap makes them a great partner for us as we bring our fully autonomous service to more riders in more places.”

Waymo, formerly known as the Google Self-Driving Car Project, is a US autonomous driving tech company headquartered in Mountain View, California. It is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.

Waymo currently operates about 700 autonomous taxis in cities, including San Francisco, with vehicles supplied by Jaguar, Chrysler and Zeekr, a subsidiary of China’s Geely Automobile. Hyundai now joins the list of Waymo’s suppliers.

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE FOUNDRY BUSINESS

Supplying autonomous EVs to Waymo is the first outcome of Hyundai’s autonomous vehicle foundry, or contract vehicle manufacturing business, which the company announced in August.

While the initial supply of the IONIQ 5 to Waymo will be limited, Hyundai expects the supply volume to increase significantly in the coming years.

“We recently announced the launch of our autonomous vehicle foundry business to provide global autonomous driving companies with vehicles capable of implementing SAE Level 4 or higher autonomous driving technology. There is no better partner for our first agreement in this initiative than industry leader Waymo,” said Chang Song, president and head of Hyundai Motor Group’s Advanced Vehicle Platform (AVP) Division.

At Level 4, classified by SAE International, formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers, a vehicle can drive itself under limited conditions and does not require safety operators in the front seat. It is just shy of Level 5, which enables fully automated driving.

The Hyundai IONIQ 5 will be delivered to Waymo with specific autonomous-ready modifications like redundant hardware to ensure safe autonomous driving and power doors.

The all-electric IONIQ 5 will enable long driving shifts on a single charge, and its 800-volt architecture will minimize time out of service with some of the industry’s fastest charging speeds available, according to Hyundai.

CHINA’S ZEEKR LIKELY TO DROP FROM WAYMO’S SUPPLIER LIST

Industry officials said Geely subsidiary Zeekr will likely be removed from the list of Waymo's vehicle suppliers due to the US government's stance against importing connected cars that use Chinese parts and software.

"The US government is unlikely to allow Chinese cars to accumulate data while running on the streets of major American cities," said an industry official.

If Zeekr is removed, Hyundai’s supply volume to Waymo should increase further, he said.

Hyundai plans to develop advanced autonomous driving vehicles by 2031 to expand its presence in Europe and across the Asia Pacific.

It aims to advance autonomous driving technology through its US subsidiary Motional Inc. and is even considering launching its own autonomous taxi service in the long term.

“Hyundai and Waymo share a vision to improve the safety, efficiency and convenience of how people move,” said José Muñoz, president and global COO of Hyundai Motor. He’s also the CEO of Hyundai Motor North America.

“Waymo’s transformational technology is improving road safety where they operate, and the IONIQ 5 is the ideal vehicle to scale this further. The team at our new manufacturing facility is ready to allocate a significant number of vehicles for the Waymo One fleet. Importantly, this is the first step in the partnership between the two companies and we are actively exploring additional opportunities for collaboration,” he said.

Motional Inc., a joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv PLC, a US mobility startup, has been offering a pilot robotaxi service with the Hyundai IONIQ 5 on public roads in Las Vegas since 2018. But its robotaxis there have safety operators in the front seat.

It has also been deploying its robotaxis on Uber and Lyft apps, which dominate the US ride-hail market.

Hyundai said its IONIQ 5 robotaxis have shown consistent driving performance in various driving environments thanks to its suite of advanced sensors, combining LiDAR, radar and cameras.

Earlier this year, Hyundai said its IONIQ 5 robotaxi passed a US driver’s license test, marking the first time a Level 4 autonomous vehicle has received Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) certification.

Write to Jae-Fu Kim at hu@hankyung.com

In-Soo Nam edited this article.