Waymo and Hyundai enter multi-year, strategic partnership

I think these are two companies in very strong positions:<p>- Hyundai&#x2F;Genesis has some of the best cars on the market right now between the GV line and Ionic lines, and they seem to be improving faster than other manufacturers<p>- Waymo is now the clear leader in self-driving in my mind after visiting SF recently and opting for Waymo driver over human driver 60% of the time.<p>I have a Mercedes on a short lease now but my hope&#x2F;expectation is that in 3 years Hyundai will be making my ideal car since the GV80 is so close, but I’d like to see an electric-first design from them in the space.<p>I wish the Waymo deal meant I could buy a Waymo-equipped Hyundai myself though :-(

I think self-driving technology is really cool, and I hope it reaches high-reliability as soon as possible.<p>But I would rather it is distributed in personally-owned cars than in fleet models. Would be a shame if the only access is through effectively &quot;renting&quot; rides from big corporations. Rooting for Comma and Tesla to get there and put it in vehicles which individuals own. Don&#x27;t want some corporation to control mobility--their use policy could be restrictive to individual freedoms.

I think this is a vehicle diversification&#x2F;hedge workaround for their initially planned Zeekr vehicle (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;waymo.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2021&#x2F;12&#x2F;expanding-our-waymo-one-fleet-with&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;waymo.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2021&#x2F;12&#x2F;expanding-our-waymo-one-fleet...</a>) being subject to 100% tariffs.

I very much look forward to owning a car with the Waymo stack. Hope this comes sooner than later! Just don’t want it to be a Hyundai, but this feature would cause me to overlook everything else about the car.

This is an interesting move given Hyundai&#x27;s position in funding Motional, who didn&#x27;t seem totally incapable of creating AV tech. Does anyone know what their future looks like after this partnership?

Gonna miss those nice Jaguars

I will never consider buying a Hyundai for several decades after their inexcusable security practices led to my insurer jacking up my insurance rates just for owning a Hyundai, despite being an earlier model.

Well shit, now Waymos will be getting stolen by scanning the license plate for a USB thumbdrive.