Dive Brief:
- Hyundai Motor Co. will start delivering electric Ioniq 5 SUVs to Waymo to serve as robotaxis on the company’s ride-hailing platform, the automaker announced at its Aug. 26 investor day event.
- The vehicles will enable the international expansion of robotaxi services as early as 2027 and will be built at the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in Georgia using a local supply chain. The Waymo robotaxis will leverage the automaker’s expertise in manufacturing, design, software and finance, per the release.
- Hyundai will also make use of robotaxi-ready Ioniq 5 SUVs as part of its Motional joint venture, which plans to deploy the vehicles later this year as fully driverless.
Dive Insight:
Hyundai’s robotaxi partnership with Waymo is one of several tie-ups between automakers and major ride-hailing companies as they race to deploy fully driverless vehicles on their respective platforms. In 2024, Hyundai and Waymo announced a multi-year strategic partnership to integrate Waymo’s autonomous driving technology stack into the Ioniq 5 electric SUV.
The push to deploy commercial robotaxis at scale is also attracting major investments. In February, Waymo closed on a $16 billion funding round as it continues to scale its commercial autonomous ride-hailing business. The company said it tripled its annual volume to 15 million rides in 2025, indicating the potential revenue of commercial robotaxi operations.
Last September, Luxury electric automaker Lucid Group closed on a $300 million investment from Uber to add up to 20,000 Lucid Gravity SUV robotaxis, outfitted with AV technology developed by Nuro, to its ride-hailing platform. Then in March, Uber announced it will invest up to $1.25 billion in electric vehicle maker Rivian through 2031 as part of its plans to add up to 50,000 of the company’s R2 SUVs to serve as robotaxis on its ride-hailing network.
Tesla in April raised its capital expenditure forecast to over $25 billion for this year, as it aims to become an AI and robotics company. The massive investment includes plans to scale Cybercab robotaxi production as part of the EV maker's goal of becoming an autonomous mobility operator.
Motional was founded in 2020 as a joint venture between Hyundai and auto supplier Aptiv. However in May 2024, Aptiv divested its 50% stake in Motional, reducing it to 15% and leaving Hyundai as the majority owner. In March, the first Motional robotaxis were deployed on Uber’s ride-hailing network in Las Vegas as part of a separate partnership between the two companies.
Also in March, Hyundai announced it was expanding its partnership with Nvidia to accelerate the deployment of next-generation, Level 2 advanced driver assist systems, as well as more advanced Level 4 autonomous driving technology in select vehicles, including robotaxis through the Motional joint venture.
