Alphabet-owned autonomous driving tech company Waymo has just expanded its robotaxi fleet with Zeekr-made minivans in the United States.
Zeekr and Waymo team up for future of mobility
Waymo added an undisclosed number of Zeekr-made autonomous minivans to its current fleet of Jaguar I-Pace electric crossovers in the US, per TechCrunch.
Waymo has already deployed these new minivans for testing on public roads in San Francisco, California, according to the report.
However, the company is not yet driving these “less than a handful” Zeekr minivans autonomously.
Partnership background
Waymo’s public testing program involving the Zeekr minivans has apparently been in the works for years.
Waymo initially declared plans to develop an autonomous ride-hail electric vehicle with China’s Zeekr for the US in late December 2021.
At the time, Waymo announced it would “introduce these all electric, rider-first, fully autonomous vehicles on US roads within our Waymo One fleet in the years to come.”
Now, it seems that the long-planned collaboration is finally achieving significant strides.
Zeekr designed and engineered the autonomous minivans in Sweden. It also manages the production process at one of its production plants in China.
Zeekr minivans details
Considering that Zeekr manages the production process of these minivans in China, Waymo insists that these EVs must leave the assembly line without any sensors and software from Zeekr.
Once the prototypes arrive in the US, Waymo will integrate the so-called Waymo Driver suite of hardware and software into these EVs.
The upgraded hardware and software on the sixth-gen Zeekr minivans are reportedly simpler than the technology on the current Jaguar I-Pace EVs that use its fifth-gen Driver.
“The fifth-generation hardware was critical to help us scale to four cities as of now, as well as navigate dense urban environments. The sixth-generation hardware builds on those capabilities, but it has a much more simplified design. It brings down the cost significantly, and it will help us operate autonomously in colder cities.”
Waymo spokesperson Sandy Karp
While Waymo currently focuses on scaling its Waymo One ride-hailing service in US cities where it already operates (Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin), it believes that the sixth-gen Driver is what will help it expand.
Waymo’s Zeekr minivan features a removable steering wheel, potentially making its homologation process easier than the ill-fated Cruise Origin. In addition, Zeekr minivans seem on track to become Waymo’s future robotaxi, considering how the Jaguar I-Pace has recently been discontinued. Waymo can no longer replace damaged units or acquire new ones for its fleet once the Jaguar’s inventory runs out.
