The new electric and autonomous vehicle developed between Waymo and Geely has already begun its tests, like any other more conventional model. A sophisticated robo-taxi bet that you can see in these first spy photos, and that will bear the emblems of Zeekr, the Asian giant’s electric car brand for this market.
The future robotaxi with which Waymo will cross the streets of the United States is already underway. For the first time, the fruit of the alliance of the provider of shared mobility services with ZeekrGeely’s electric car brand, has been seen on the frozen plains of northern Sweden, undergoing dynamic tests like any other of the new models that will hit the market in the coming months.
A future alternative to the Volkswagen ID. Autonomous Buzz that will arrive in the middle of the decade, which has appeared in some spy photos camouflaged, although exposing the details of a very avant-garde design. The short front overhang, arranged in a wedge and with some rectangular headlights in a very high position, almost flush with the sloped windshield. The design of the unprecedented autonomous vehicle is presented with very vertical lines, with front pillars with a wide angle and open to facilitate vision, while on the sides a very clean style is presented, with a large glazed area with integrated door handles.
The new Robotaxi of Zeekr and Waymo of production, in spy photos
The Asians have ensured that the camouflage perfectly covers the entire body, preventing some details such as the guides of the rear doors, suggesting a reverse opening, suicide type, given the position of the handles of these doors, but they will really be sliding. And it is that unlike Waymo’s rendered preview, in which there was no central pillar, in this prototype it can be seen that there is looking through the rear window to the opposite side, despite the fact that they have been in charge of concealing the central pillar on the right side.
However, there are details that do not agree with an autonomous vehicle. For example, the absence of the LIDAR sensors that will be placed on the roof and on the front side endsor the steering wheel that can be seen driven by the driver, which opens the possibility that it is a mandatory provisional element in these experimental tests; or that the Chinese manufacturer is also conceiving a five-seater electric minivan in the purest style of the new Volkswagen ID. Buzzand later with more advanced legislation
And it is that today it is more than impossible for this Zeekr to be made available to Waymo in real operating conditions, since there is no specific legislation for autonomous functions of level 4 and 5without direct human supervision. What can be seen is that the prototype shows an advanced state of gestation, and that those at Zeekr are developing a fleet of units at Volvo’s facilities in Gothenburg to start a pilot test program in the Swedish city in the coming months.