Waymo announced that it has started using its sixth-generation driverless system to offer robotaxi rides to employees in Ojai vehicles, which are built on a base model from Chinese automaker Geely.
By upgrading their driverless tech, and adding more vehicles to its fleet, Waymo aims to extend its U.S. lead and lock in loyal riders, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
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The Alphabet-owned company said its sixth-generation Waymo Driver uses more cost-effective parts, and should be able to navigate through harsher weather conditions than previous generations.
The new system will serve “as the primary engine for our next era of expansion,” Waymo Vice President of Engineering Satish Jeyachandran said in a statement.
Waymo is offering service on its Ojai vehicles to employees and their guests in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles first, before gradually expanding to new cities, with a goal to open to public riders later this year.
The deployment of Waymo’s next-generation robotaxi comes as the company pushes to extend its lead in the U.S. while testing and planning for commercial operations abroad.
Already, Waymo offers fully autonomous robotaxi service in six U.S. markets with plans to begin service in London later this year. Potential rivals, including Amazon-owned Zoox and Tesla, are testing their driverless systems in the U.S. but do not yet offer driverless ride-hailing services widely.
Chinese robotaxi companies, including Baidu-owned Apollo Go and WeRide, have been expanding abroad at a faster clip than Waymo. The global market for driverless ride-hailing has significant potential, likely worth more than $25 billion by 2030, according to Goldman Sachs’ estimates in May last year.
Waymo’s decision to use Chinese electric vehicles in its U.S. fleet has raised GOP lawmakers’ concerns.
“We’re locked in a race with China, but it seems like you’re getting in bed with China,” Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, said to Waymo safety chief at a committee hearing last week.
Spokesperson Sandy Karp told CNBC that Waymo will not provide “any access to its closely-held autonomous driving technology, sensor data, nor any rider information” to Zeekr. The Chinese automaker, a subsidiary of Geely, is responsible for providing “base vehicles,” and Waymo installs its autonomous driving technology in the cars in the U.S.
The company’s sixth-generation systems will also work with robotaxis built on the Hyundai Ioniq 5. Waymo’s current, Jaguar I-PACE vehicles will continue to run on its fifth-generation systems.
“We have consistently operated mixed fleets for years, including when we transitioned from the 4th-gen Driver on the Pacifica to the 5th-gen Driver on the I-PACE,” Karp said in an email.
The Ojai is a boxier ride, with a lower step and higher ceiling, than Waymo’s existing robotaxis, but has about the same footprint as the Jaguar I-PACE.
