ASSOCIATED PRESS
On June 25, Waymo and Volvo announced an “exclusive” partnership to integrate Waymo’s self-driving technology onto Volvo’s vehicular platform.
Volvo and Waymo each announced that, “Waymo is the exclusive L4 partner for Volvo Car Group.” Waymo did not offer up any comparable exclusivity to Volvo. Indeed, Waymo has varying levels of partnership with Fiat-Chrysler, Jaguar, and Renault Nissan, which it mentions in the same blog post announcing the Volvo partnership.
The announcement indicates that Volvo and Waymo will, “integrate the Waymo Driver into an all-new mobility-focused electric vehicle platform for ride hailing services.”
There’s a lot to unpack in that sentence.
Vehicle Platform
In May, Volvo announced the inclusion of Luminar lidar sensors into its upcoming SPA 2 modular vehicle architecture, set to launch in 2022. That announcement stated that SPA 2 vehicles would be “available as hardware-ready for autonomous drive.” However, lidar sensors would not necessarily be standard in every vehicle.
Luminar CEO Austin Russell
Although Volvo’s May announcement did not specifically mention Level 3 autonomous driving, its description of the upcoming Highway Pilot feature closely matches the SAE description of Level 3: “Fully autonomous highway driving will be activated once it is verified to be safe for individual geographic locations and conditions.”
The juxtaposition and chronological proximity of the Luminar announcement and the Waymo announcement indicate that Volvo is simultaneously developing a Level 3 vehicle platform in-house and a separate Level 4 platform with Waymo.
The Volvo and Waymo partnership focuses on the Waymo Driver. Waymo’s blog describes the Driver as a system that both includes and relies heavily on proprietary sensors. It seems unlikely that Waymo’s partnership with Volvo would involve licensing Driver software for use with Luminar or other sensors.
Ridesharing
There is also a question of who will operate the ride-hailing service for which Waymo and Volvo are developing an all-new platform. Waymo is currently operating a small ride-hailing service called Waymo One in the Phoenix metro area. Volvo has a long-standing partnership with Uber
In 2019, Volvo and Uber presented, “a jointly developed production car capable of driving by itself…enabling the possible future deployment of self-driving cars in Uber’s network as an autonomous ridesharing service.”
Volvo’s partnership with Waymo raises the possibility that the Waymo Driver, integrated into a Volvo platform, could make its way onto Uber’s ridesharing service. While merely speculative at this point, that possibility would further complicate an already complex relationship between Waymo and Uber.
Further Details
The announcement specifically mentions Volvo’s subsidiary electric car subsidiary Polestar. Polestar, founded in 2017, has not yet released a production vehicle. Its electric vehicle expertise, however, could benefit all-new electric vehicle platform that Volvo and Waymo will jointly develop.
Volvo, while itself Swedish, is owned by Geely Global, a Chinese automotive conglomerate. The Volvo relationship might open the possibility for Waymo to further partner with Chinese automotive companies. Waymo has limited presence in China as yet.
