Google announced on December 28. its autonomous drive subsidiary Waymo has partnered with Geely Holding Group’s premium electric brand, Zeekr to co-develop a purpose built pure electric vehicle for Waymo One autonomous ride-hailing fleet operated in the United States.
As rendered images of the interior show the vehicle features a mini bus concept without B-pillar, steering-wheel and pedals. The flat floor design with low step-in height makes the entry more comfortable.
According to Geely The purpose-built mobility vehicle is being designed and developed at Zeekr’s R&D facility in Gothenburg, Sweden. Under this collaboration, Zeekr will be designing and developing the future vehicle on a new proprietary and open-source mobility architecture. Waymo will take delivery of the vehicles in the United States and will then integrate its fully autonomous Waymo Driver into the vehicle platform.
“The new vehicle will be designed to be rider-centric from the outset, setting a new benchmark for autonomous vehicles. The new Zeekr vehicle has been designed for autonomous use-cases and will come with a fully configurable cabin, both with and without driver controls, that can be tailored towards rider requirements for the Waymo One unmanned ride-hailing fleet in the US.”
Zeekr was founded in early 2021 as a global technology-mobility brand with design and engineering resources in Sweden. The first model from Zeekr, the 001, was introduced in April 2021 with deliveries starting in October of the same year.
