Hyundai and Waymo Reach Strategic Partnership for Autonomous Driving

TapTechNews October 4th news, according to Yonhap News Agency, Hyundai Motor said today that it has reached a strategic partnership with Waymo, an autonomous driving subsidiary of Google.

TapTechNews learned that this move aims to push forward the cooperation in the field of driverless taxis and accelerate the research and development and application of autonomous vehicle technology.

After the two major companies signed the contract, Hyundai Motor's IONIQ 5 will apply Waymo's 6th-generation fully autonomous driving technology WaymoDriver. The two sides will also promote the plan to put the relevant vehicles into Waymo's driverless taxi service WaymoOne.

The IONIQ 5 supplied to Waymo will be produced at Hyundai Motor's electric vehicle-only factory HyundaiMotorGroupMetaplantAmerica (HMGMA) located in the state of Georgia, USA.

The two companies decided to start the preliminary road test of IONIQ 5 vehicles equipped with WaymoDriver from the end of next year and strive to allow the users of WaymoOne to use this vehicle in the next few years.