Hyundai / Waymo Strategic Partnership to allow Hyundai to Leapfrog Tesla FSD?

The Hyundai / Waymo multi-year strategic partnership will see the Hyundai Ioniq 5 enter autonomous taxi service with the IONIQ 5 being built for Waymo on the Hyundai Georgia assembly line and testing to begin by late 2025 with Waymo customer riders having access in the 2026 calendar year.

To quote Jose Munoz, global COO of Hyundai Motors and President and CEO of Hyundai Motor North America:

“Hyundai and Waymo share a vision to improve the safety, efficiency and convenience of how people move. Waymo’s transformational technology is improving road safety where they operate, and the IONIQ 5 is the ideal vehicle to scale this further. The team at our new manufacturing facility is ready to allocate a significant number of vehicles for the Waymo One fleet as it continues to expand. Importantly, this is the first step in the partnership between the two companies and we are actively exploring additional opportunities for collaboration.”

Chang Song, President and head of Hyundai Motor Group's Advanced Vehicle Platform (AVP) stated the following: 

“There is no better partner for our first agreement in this initiative than industry-leader Waymo. We recently announced the launch of Hyundai Motor Company’s autonomous vehicle foundry business to provide global autonomous driving companies with vehicles capable of implementing SAE Level 4 or higher autonomous driving technology.” 

AVP has stated the following:

• Hyundai Motor details a flexible response approach to market conditions and focus on electrification through its ‘Hyundai Way’ strategy
  • Targeting 5.55 million annual global sales by 2030, up 30% from 2023
  • Aiming to sell 2 million EVs per year globally by 2030
  • Plan to introduce new EREV models, a new type of EV with a range of more than 900 km (559 miles) on a single charge, in North America and China
  • Aiming to offer a full lineup of 21 EV models by 2030, ranging from affordable to luxury and high-performance
• Introducing enhanced next-generation hybrid system with improved performance and fuel efficiency
  • Plans to expand HEV offerings to 14 models from the current seven; Genesis luxury brand will also offer hybrid models
• Continuously pushing for battery technology internalization; develop affordable NCM batteries and strengthen safety technology
• Plans to commercialize autonomous driving vehicle foundry business; to supply autonomous vehicles to global autonomous driving software firms
• Aiming to secure top-tier energy leadership during the energy transition period by strengthening Group-wide hydrogen technology capabilities across the value chain
• Plan to make a significant investment of KRW 120.5 trillion through 2033 to support the ‘Hyundai Way’ strategy
• Employ new target shareholder return (TSR) of over 35% and rollout of a share buyback scheme of up to KRW 4 trillion from 2025 to 2027

Per Hyundai, the strategic relationship will see an implementation across the Hyundai Family of auto divisions with Level 2 through Level 4 autonomous driving in both Hyundai and Genesis products starting in 2026 with EREV playing a prominent role in bridging the move to electrification for global customers.

EREV are electric vehicles with a gas generator to optimize long distance driving.

With WAYMO already have multiple self driving taxi services in select cities, this strategic partnership would imply that Hyundai is ready to leapfrog Tesla in having their auto's be truly self driving and with Waymo tech at a Level 4+ of autonomous driving, this would imply just that.

Do you think Hyundai will Leapfrog Tesla?