Waymo late on Wednesday revealed its new robotaxi primarily based on a platform developed by Geely and its Zeekr EV model.

Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving division first introduced plans for the robotaxi in late 2021, and at Wednesday’s reveal the corporate mentioned the car shall be deployed within the Waymo One robotaxi service in “the years to return.”

Waymo One has been efficiently run in components of Phoenix for the previous couple of years. Final summer season, the service was expanded to components of San Francisco, and Waymo has confirmed the subsequent cease shall be Los Angeles. Waymo can also be growing a self-driving supply service, often called Waymo Through.

All electrical.
Riders-first.
Designed particularly for totally autonomous ride-hailing.

Take a peek at our new mobility platform in partnership with @GeelyGroup—accessible within the years to return. pic.twitter.com/AJiRtPzytP

— Waymo (@Waymo) November 17, 2022

Waymo presently depends on Chrysler Pacifica minivans and Jaguar I-Tempo crossovers for its Waymo One service, although these autos had been initially designed to be pushed by a human for personal use. The brand new robotaxi has been designed particularly for a self-driving service, offering a number of benefits for firms like Waymo.

The robotaxi’s platform is a variation of Geely’s SEA devoted EV platform. This one is designed for mobility providers, and is branded the SEA-M platform. Key traits embrace versatile seating choices, a flat ground, sliding doorways, a lacking B-pillar for straightforward ingress and egress, and a sturdy electrical spine to make connectivity and {hardware} integration simple.

Whereas Waymo’s robotaxi shall be devoid of a steering wheel and pedals, autos primarily based on the SEA-M platform have the choice so as to add these again. The NHTSA not requires self-driving automobiles to have such conventional tools so long as they meet the Federal Motor Car Security Customary.

The precise self-driving system for Waymo’s robotaxi shall be Waymo’s personal Waymo Driver. The system is ranked at Stage 4 on the SAE scale of self-driving functionality as it may well drive by itself for prolonged durations, although solely with restrictions. Stage 5 is the final word aim, as this represents a system that may drive on the identical stage as a human.

Zeekr hasn’t mentioned the place the robotaxis shall be constructed, although Geely has a brand new plant in China established for manufacturing of autos primarily based on the SEA platform.

Individually, Zeekr is growing its personal car with Stage 4 self-driving functionality in a partnership with Intel’s Mobileye self-driving division. The focused launch is 2024.