Few people have noticed the agreement signed between Waymo and Geely and I think it is quite interesting. Waymo is the company with the most experience in autonomous car driving and Geely is a Chinese automotive group that bought Volvo years ago, and manufactures cars with different brands.
The signed agreement is to use Waymo's technology in a new car model manufactured by Geely to dedicate it to autonomous taxi services, and Waymo says it will use it in the services it already offers in different cities around the world, especially in the USA.
The car will be designed in Sweden by one of Volvo's former companies, and will be in the form of a minivan with the two sliding side doors for easy entry and exit, and will not have a steering wheel but only an information screen.
At the bottom you can see two photos that Waymo has shown.
Of course they are only indicative photos as the car has yet to be designed and put into production.
My reflection on this case is that the strategy is very reasonably beneficial for both companies, since Waymo is very expert in autonomous driving but not in making cars; on the other hand, Geely is a small company in the automotive world and it is interested in growing as quickly as possible, and with this agreement it can offer electric cars with a new differentiating technology to the market.
The large automotive companies (GM, Toyota, etc ...) try to get their own autonomous driving systems for their cars without counting on anyone to be totally independent, and that forces Waymo to look for other alternatives for its future.
And this agreement is a good alternative and I think it indicates where Waymo's efforts are going to go in the future.
On the one hand, Waymo can offer its autonomous driving “system” to small and medium-sized companies, and on the other hand, continue to develop the autonomous taxi business in various cities around the world.
The autonomous taxi business requires large investments in equipment (purchase of cars, plus management and maintenance service), but there is a lot of money in the world wanting to invest in businesses that offer good profitability.
As I have written on more than one occasion, a silent revolution is happening in the automotive world with electric cars and autonomous driving, and it will be a few years until we see how the panorama clears and who remains in the market.
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