In the future, the vehicle you summon through a ride-hailing service could be electric, self-driving, or both. Last week, self-driving car company Waymo from Alphabet, the parent company of Google, announced that new vehicles it is developing with a Chinese automaker, Geely, will check those two boxes. The ride may eventually have no steering wheel or pedals at all, a concept of self-driving cars that dates back to at least 2018.
In a blog post, Waymo said Geely’s electric car will be a “copy” of a car called Zeekr, and will be created “specifically for autonomous riding.” The floors will be flat and, as expected today, will have forward-facing seating.
Waymo is previewing the amenities the cabin will have, such as easily accessible phone chargers and screens, and also looks to a future where the most notable feature may be what the car lacks, such as the steering wheel. “The vehicles are currently configured with controls designed for human use that are required in the United States,” a Waymo spokesperson said via email. “However, we designed the vehicle’s interior to work with various configurations, including the lack of required human driving controls once regulations in the United States and elsewhere would allow it.”
Waymo actually operates two different types of vehicles. The first is the self-driving Chrysler Pacificas, which roams the streets in the Phoenix, Arizona area with no humans behind the wheel as part of a public transit service called Waymo One. The second is electric Jaguar I-PACEs, which the company uses in a more limited fashion in San Francisco and has a safety driver sitting at its head.
Waymo’s new car concept mimics in some ways what other companies in the space have already announced. Zoox, a startup owned by Amazon, is working on a vehicle that looks like a self-driving electric rickshaw in which passengers sit facing each other. It will also be driverless and two-way. (Although their cars in places like Seattle are currently modified Toyota Highlanders.) The GM-owned Cruze revealed the Origin’s design, which is conceptually similar to the planned Zoox. Compared to those visions, the new Geely looks more traditional, with long, forward-facing seats.
The partnership between Waymo and Geely is just one of several in the transportation space right now. Amazon, besides owning Zoox, also has a relationship with Rivian, the roaring automaker who created the upcoming R1T and R1S electric pickup truck. A British company called Reach is working on an electric car designed for Uber, too, although it won’t be self-driving. An Uber spokesperson says via email that the two companies are “exploring a strategic relationship in key markets including the UK and the EU”.
Nick Nigro, founder of Atlas Public Policy, a research firm that monitors the electric vehicle space, points out that the nature of electric vehicles matches fast construction times. “The speed at which you can design new cars is much faster — you have platforms that you can build a lot of types of vehicles on, using the skateboard concept,” he says. Because of this speed, and because of partnerships in the industry, he noted, it is a period of transformation in the field.
“The next few years will be the most exciting time for automobile manufacturing in the last 100,” Nigro adds. “What is going to happen in this industry, as these new manufacturers try to achieve scale, is going to put so much money into transportation that it will be an exciting journey for all of these budding startups.”
Waymo said in the blog post that their new Geely cars will be on the road in “the coming years.”