Today, Waymo and Geely announced their partnership. One is the leader of the global autonomous driving industry, and the other is the leader of the domestic independent car brand.
Specifically, Geely's high-end smart electric brand, Extreme Kr, will provide exclusive vehicles for Waymo's driverless fleet and will be put into commercial operation in the United States, but a specific timetable has not yet been announced.
Previously, there were not few car companies around the world that had cooperated with Waymo, but the special thing about this cooperation with Geely is that this is the first model officially announced by Waymo to be completely driverless.
Built for completely driverless
Generally speaking, the cooperation between autonomous driving players and car companies as a whole can be divided into two forms: rear and front.
In the past few years, the rear installation has become more mainstream and more in line with the development status of the industry, that is, the autonomous driving player purchases a batch of vehicles from the car company, and then modifies and installs the models to make it initially have the function of automatic driving.
However, from a long-term perspective, the aftermarket scheme has too many restrictions and has slowly faded out of the market. For example, players need to continuously adjust the configuration and installation of their automatic driving system kits according to the conditions of different models purchased, and if the kit and the car cannot be matched well, it will also affect the overall automatic driving effect.
In contrast, the front-loading mass production method can be designed according to the needs of automatic driving, which is more extreme in terms of safety and personalized travel, and is more in line with the ultimate form of unmanned driving commercialization.
According to official information, different from the design ideas of traditional models focusing on drivers, the two sides work together to create exclusive Robotaxi travel service products that focus on passenger preferences, including the comfort and convenience of the ride experience.
In terms of appearance, the model has the characteristics of low ground clearance and flat floor shape, while eliminating the B-pillar design, which can create ample head and leg space for passengers and bring more convenient boarding and getting on and off the car. At the same time, the model adopts a more flexible cockpit design, which can support both driving control and no driver control mechanism, as well as a variety of seat layouts.
It is understood that the model was designed and developed by the European Innovation Center (CEVT) of Extreme Kr, and was born from the exclusive architecture created by Extreme Kr for future intelligent travel - Haohan-M (SEA-M) architecture.
According to the plan, the model will be equipped with Waymo Driver driverless solutions after delivery.
Seize the peak of commercial landing
To some extent, the model created in cooperation with Geely will become a key part of Waymo's commercial peak.
Judging from the current situation of the industry, players have entered the exploration stage of unmanned commercial landing. How to turn technology into commodities and achieve profitability may first need to answer the following three questions:
The first is operation. Today's automatic driving is not a simple product delivery, but a set of products, services in one of the overall solution, if the player does not have the ability to operate, automatic driving is difficult to really play the value of serving passengers. In addition, large-scale operations can also reduce costs.
The second is cost. The direct source of profit for any business, simply understood, is revenue minus costs. But for autonomous driving companies, on the one hand, the cost of equipping the whole vehicle with software and hardware is high; on the other hand, the initial investment in technology research and development is huge.
The third is security. Although autonomous driving at this stage may not achieve zero accidents, in theory, autonomous driving is safer than human driving. Only if the technology is safe enough will people be more willing to embrace this new technology.
For Waymo, it has been deeply engaged in the field of autonomous driving for 10 years, and has been operating openly for several years, and its experience and resources naturally do not need to be repeated.
In contrast, cost and security need to be further optimized. The creation of more in-depth exclusive models with car companies can solve the above problems to a large extent, such as targeted design (including redundant design) to enhance the stability of the system; production in the form of assembly line to achieve scale effects, reduce costs, and ensure the unity of vehicle quality.
The rise of China's own brands
In fact, before Geely, Waymo has had different degrees of strategic cooperation with FCA, Volvo and other companies. But the difference is that among the many options, Waymo entrusts its completely driverless carrier to Geely (Extreme Kr), although the birth of the Extreme Krypton brand is not long.
Interestingly, in September this year, another star player in the field of autonomous driving also announced that it has cooperated with Chinese independent brands to build the Robotaxi team.
At that time, Mobileye released a six-seat autonomous driving (L4) electric vehicle in Germany and announced that it would start commercial operations in Tel Aviv and Munich in 2022, and the NIO ES8 (which can be understood as a special customized version) will be used as an important model for use.
For legal and regulatory reasons, Mobileye was only able to conduct manned tests on public roads in Munich in the early days. However, once regulatory approval is obtained, the fleet will shift from testing to commercial operations. At the same time, Mobileye's Robotaxi operations in Tel Aviv, Israel, will also be carried out in an orderly manner.
Based on this partnership, Mobileye will gradually roll out the Robotaxi service throughout Germany and other European countries over the next decade.
In the past, Mobileye was a pioneer in the ADAS field, and it has been solid and solid on the road to L2, and now entering the L4 field is undoubtedly of strategic importance. But again, the landing partners chose Chinese car companies.
Whether it is Waymo and Geely, or Mobileye and Nio, these cooperations also prove to a large extent that China's independent car brands are gaining recognition from around the world.
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