• jitl 2 days ago

    I think these are two companies in very strong positions:

    - Hyundai/Genesis has some of the best cars on the market right now between the GV line and Ionic lines, and they seem to be improving faster than other manufacturers

    - Waymo is now the clear leader in self-driving in my mind after visiting SF recently and opting for Waymo driver over human driver 60% of the time.

    I have a Mercedes on a short lease now but my hope/expectation is that in 3 years Hyundai will be making my ideal car since the GV80 is so close, but I’d like to see an electric-first design from them in the space.

    I wish the Waymo deal meant I could buy a Waymo-equipped Hyundai myself though :-(

    • its_down_again 2 days ago

      Living in San Francisco, I feel much safer as both a pedestrian and a cyclist when I see a Waymo at crosswalks vs. human drivers. I was hit by a car once while cycling because the driver zoned out, realized too late they were about to miss a turn, and struck me while attempting a last-minute turn. Since then, I’ve become hyper aware whenever drivers are on their phones at stop signs or play pointless games of chicken, trying to beat red lights just to end up stuck blocking the middle of the street.

      When I see a Waymo, it feels like it's aware of me and always stops at a safe distance, and I don't fear a collision. It doesn't give off the hostile or dangerously clueless vibe I often get from human drivers in the city.

      • AStonesThrow a day ago

        I must say that I usually try to keep the screen view of the 3D world perceived by the Waymo Driver.

        I prefer to sit in the front passenger seat. Once I've programmed my music and adjusted climate control, I sit back, relax, and watch the little icons of vehicles, pedestrians, roads and lanes, and the immediate route plan ahead.

        The icons include pylons detected, as well as cyclists and emergency vehicles. There are some rather ghostly fades in/out at the peripheries, but it's clear that the Waymo Driver has perpetual 360° situational awareness.

        This weekend, I'm celebrating 1 year with Waymo: 144 rides and 805 miles logged.

        The Jaguar I-PACE is very comfortable, includes 2x USB-C charging ports, electric reclining front seat, plenty of cargo in trunk (and no cab driver storing his stuff) so I look forward to how the Hyundais measure up.

      • kevlened 2 days ago

        The intent is to eventually make this available to own

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCY214KiwNs&t=1329s

        • lucianbr 2 days ago

          They may say that, but OpenAI also said they're not for profit. They say the darndest things.

          It seems to make much more sense to have a fleet owned and operated by a corporation. I actually doubt that any company that achieves proper self-driving will sell vehicles. Renting makes much more money, and corporations like money. Do you see Google selling their search engine as software that you can deploy on-premise? Do you see Amazon selling the internet store software? Microsoft was selling Windows and Office, and what do we see? They are trying to move as many customers as they can to the rent model. Logitech mentioned subscription for a mouse.

          Nobody will sell self-driving cars, if they can make them.

          • skyyler 2 days ago

            >Do you see Google selling their search engine as software that you can deploy on-premise?

            They did, until pretty recently.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Search_Appliance

            • enragedcacti 2 days ago

              There are going to be a ton of really powerful network effects with large scale robotaxi networks. Rideshare network effects are already pretty strong and the startup costs are much lower than a company having to build and maintain hundreds of thousands or millions of vehicles. The first team with commercially viable wide scale self driving might not jump straight to consumer sale, but the second one will, and if not them the third. On top of that, anyone who wants to scale quickly will have to either be an automaker or play ball with automakers who will have little interest in putting all their autonomy eggs in someone else's basket. Even if an automaker does want to go all-in they will have to contend with dealers who are an extremely powerful political force and who would have a very diminished role in a rental only future.

              I think its much more likely that we see premium cars for purchase with L2 and advanced safety features at no additional charge and a yearly subscription model for L3/L4 like we see with hands-free and L3 tech from Ford, GM, and Mercedes right now. Even so Ford now offers a one-time purchase option for Blue Cruise so maybe consumers are going to push back on that model as well.

              • jauntywundrkind 2 days ago

                What's scary so how networks externalize the costs while controlling the profit.

                Ideally the internet could be host to actual marketplaces, versus the up-in-the-cloud data-keepd that dictate to the down-below dwellers.

              • dyauspitr 2 days ago

                Well they are not saying it’s a non profit, self driving cars will very much be for profit, a lot of it.

              • dageshi 2 days ago

                I'll be honest, I think they're just saying this so as not to spook anyone. But really I think they plan to build a massive, super convenient robot taxi service across the country and by the time their self driving tech is "ready" for sale that service will be completely ubiquitous.

                • conductr 2 days ago

                  There is still some value in having a dedicated/always available option like car owners are used to. I live in a car centric city and maybe drive somewhere on average of 8 times a day (it's probably 4 on weekdays and maybe 20 on weekends). Uber is always near but still usually takes a minimum of 8-10 minutes and probably an averages ~12-15 minutes in my experience before I am entering the vehicle after summoning it. You can do the math and see that I would spend hours a day waiting in current world. If every vehicle was a Waymo then sure they'd always have one on my block at the ready, in theory. But in reality, a business will eventually seek to maximize efficiency and this will lead to a sucky UX.

                  People also use vehicles as cargo carriages, not simply human transport devices. I know I don't always immediately unload my vehicle when I transport things, sometimes it gets stored there. Sometimes the load time and the unload time don't even make sense to do back to back. Sometimes I load something knowing I will unload it next week. Some things I just carry around with me on the off chance I might need them while out and about. Anyway, there's a lot of nuance to this type of change and why owning a car might still make sense for a lot of people.

                  • dageshi 2 days ago

                    I would expect self driving cars to be a lot quicker and more available than uber.

                    Plus lets be honest Americans love their cars, a lot of them are never going to give them up on the principle of the thing, but their kids are likely to reach an age where they would need to learn to drive and just not see the point, self driving robo taxi's will be good enough.

                    • smugma 2 days ago

                      Where do you live that you can take 20 car rides in a day? Dense suburb?

                      I have a hard time (for myself, not doubting you) imagining that many things to do.

                      • conductr 19 hours ago

                        I guess dense suburb.

                        I’m in the suburban core of Dallas Texas. The area that was originally developed in 1950s as suburbs. It’s very much considered “in town” now as the area has sprawled greatly since. But it’s still very neighborhood-like. Most of my trips are 10 minutes or less from my house of total drive time.

                        Before having a kid I never understood the busy parenting thing, but I’m actually finding myself want to be at all the things and it’s a huge social thing that nothing since college/high school compares too. Meeting new friends as an adult is actually very easy if you have kids and want to be involved in things.

                      • jeffbee 2 days ago

                        You get in and out of your car 20 times a day on Saturdays? What hell is that?

                        • conductr 2 days ago

                          Probably. I’m guessing. But it equates to 10 destinations.

                          3-4 are kid activities sports/birthdays/play dates (we only have 1 kid but he’s a busy guy!)

                          2 weekly dog grooming appointment (doodle!) have to drop her off then pick her up later, so it’s counts as 2

                          2 we eat out twice on Saturday and once Sunday

                          Rest are other social, family visits, or hobby activities along with a plethora of random errands; groceries, home center, and a long tail of specialty stores that are individually irregular but always a few every weekend (pool supplies, makeup for my wife, post office/UPS, etc.)

                          We shop online so mostly avoid malls and department stores unless it’s more of a boutique thing or something we want to see before buying. We don’t do food delivery or groceries unless it’s just curbside thing which is another trip. I hate the online/app shopping experience for things like groceries.

                          Sometimes I just drive half a mile to get a Big Gulp fountain drink or an ice cream cone with the kid. I could walk or bike, but it’s car centric and 100F outside.

                          It’s also a huge range and varies a lot by season. We certainly have some weekends we barely leave the house.

                          • jemmyw a day ago

                            That sounds exhausting. I've got 3 kids and a dog and don't go out in the car nearly as much as that. 5 or 6 times a WEEK! I don't know how you have time left for the actual hobbies. We do though, do most shopping online.

                            > a long tail of specialty stores that are individually irregular but always a few every weekend (pool supplies, makeup for my wife, post office/UPS, etc.)

                            I always save stuff like that up so I don't need to make an extra trip out

                            • conductr 19 hours ago

                              It can be. When I’m exhausted, I take a trip and it involves lots of car rides and flights too.

                              Hobby time has suffered the most. My philosophy is spend as much time as possible with my kid while he actually wants to be around me. So that’s my hobby now. But I’m also a nocturnal person so I do hobbies from 9pm-3am. Helps that I have a low stress low demand job. I work about 30 hours a week and can do that any time I want. Some weeks I’ll do a 2 on / 5 off schedule. Or work a lot for a month then take the summer off. I realized that’s a luxury most people don’t have.

                              I do the bulk purchase thing too on lots of stuff but still it seems like there’s always a few places we need to go on any given weekend.

                      • Hasu 2 days ago

                        Does it matter if you "own" your car if it is part of the Waymo fleet, getting regular updates and communicating with the Waymo network like any other robotaxi in the fleet? You could even opt into having it give people rides while you're working or sleeping. And then Waymo can have you pay for the maintenance, insurance, and cleaning. It's like having Uber drivers who don't have to drive!

                        • dageshi 2 days ago

                          I think the key issue is that "owning" a car comes with a lot of expectations on behalf of existing customers.

                          People are going to say that if they own it they should be able to mod it as they please, is that actually practical with a self driving car? What if they mod it in some way that makes it dangerous? Who's liable?

                          There's a whole host of issues like this and most of them go away completely if you can't buy a self driving car but you can rent it per ride. Plus, if they do run it as a taxi service I think they can iterate everything from hardware, software and even infrastructure that supports it much faster than if they're selling it.

                          I think google will be content to run a taxi service and let others sell self driving cars if and when they catch up because honestly it's a better business than outright selling cars.

                        • dyauspitr 2 days ago

                          I doubt it. The US is too spread out and large to have a centralized robo taxi system work for everyone. We will need individual vehicles.

                      • Shakahs 2 days ago

                        Counterpoint: Hyundai/Kia has a terrible reputation in the car industry and was probably willing to give Waymo more favorable terms than any other manufacturer. Ford and GM are working on FSD by themselves, so they aren't interested.

                        Hyundai/Kia have had multiple scandals over the past 10 years due to widespread engine failures, fatal vehicle fires, and becoming a huge theft target due to failing to install even the most basic anti-theft technology (RFID key+immobilizer). Each of these has resulted in recalls and lawsuits.

                        And besides that, Consumer Reports ranks them #10 on the reliability chart.

                        https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-reliability-owner-s...

                        • TeaBrain a day ago

                          That link doesn't communicate what you seem to think it does. A rank of #10/11 puts their reliability in the upper third amongst major manufacturers, above every American auto manufacturer, as well as above every European car manufacturer except for BMW and Porsche.

                        • BossingAround 2 days ago

                          Waymo works in specific areas only though. As soon as you get out of San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, or Austin, the car wouldn't have self-driving capabilities.

                          I suspect it'll be some kind of AI-powered assistant that will take self-driving vehicles to people, like [1]. You retrofit a device onto your car, which'll hook to the car's sensors (as well as bring it's own sensors, like camera) and get a better experience in self-driving. Still nowhere near reliable to just stop paying attention though.

                          Hopefully, they'll make reliable self-driving vehicles within the next 10 years or so...

                          [1] https://comma.ai/

                          • hiddencost 2 days ago

                            Atlanta coming soon.

                            They scaled from 10k to 100k per week in a year.

                            They've been operating successfully on highways for months now.

                            Once they can do highways, a huge fraction of the US will open up. And generally speaking, driving outside of cities is quite a bit more easy.

                            They seem like they're moving very quicky to massive deployment. Comma is still just driver assist.

                            Custom vehicles that can strip out all the complexity of a steering wheel will reduce costs pretty aggressively.

                            • AStonesThrow 2 days ago

                              Any taxi service will rely on several elements which limit their service area:

                              1. Availability. How many vehicles are in an area, that can respond to dispatch?

                              2. Demand. Can't have too many idle vehicles scooting around and taking up space.

                              3. Service. Must establish depots where the vehicles can return for charging, cleaning and maintenance.

                              4. Support. Waymo Support is a tap away, and if a vehicle gets particularly jammed up, they will dispatch a technician in their own vehicle. Support can also monitor telemetry and push commands to give nudges (but cannot remotely drive a car).

                              So with the current model, I do not envision Waymo service areas expanding beyond the reach of their depots, or offering long-haul trips between urban centers.

                            • tracker1 2 days ago

                              Even then... I happen to live in Phoenix, and locally wouldn't mind self-driving, but I like to drive on road trips as well. So electric first and limited self-driving as an option for my home area would be really nice, at least for me specifically.

                              Of course, I don't have enough trust in self-driving to even use the things. I know a lot of people love them, and have a couple acquaintances working on self-driving stuff. Just me being a bit hesitant with new tech in general.

                              I have similar feelings on a lot of the smart home stuff, well justified after companies dropping, deprecating hardware or outright dying. Maybe in another decade we might see better options all around.

                              • everforward 2 days ago

                                Self-driving being affordable enough for people to own a self-driving car is going to rely on either massive price reductions on LiDAR sensors (an order of magnitude or 2) or a Tesla-style approach without LiDAR working out.

                                I worked in the space 5ish years ago, and the LiDAR sensors were monstrously expensive. They were the most expensive component we put in the car; if I'm remembering right, a single LiDAR sensor cost more than the car itself and there were half a dozen or so of them on the car. I want to say it was ballpark $500k to build out one of the cars, with the majority of that being LiDAR sensors followed by the servers in the car.

                                Comma doesn't appear terribly close to cracking that based on their features. It's certainly a neat project, but I wouldn't put them much closer to cracking self-driving than someone just starting out today.

                                • ra7 2 days ago

                                  Your numbers are way off. Waymo reported 5 years ago their Jaguars cost between $120k-$150k. That was after reducing their LiDAR cost by 90% from $75,000 to ~$7500. Their newly announced 6th gen sensors are even cheaper.

                                  LiDAR sensors are no longer expensive. We are seeing automakers including sub $1000 LiDARs. Granted they only offer L2 ADAS, but the rapid price cratering means it's only a matter of time for consumer-owned self driving cars.

                                  • everforward 2 days ago

                                    That's likely still too expensive; sub-$1,000 would probably work. The currently deployed Waymos have 5 $7,500 (at cost) LiDAR sensors in them. That's $37.5k, almost exactly $10k short of the average new car sale price.

                                    To be clear, I'm talking about the point where normal people get new cars that have self-driving. It's affordable for wealthy people now, and was available to the super wealthy before that. I think the whole package is going to have to get somewhere in the $5k-$10k range before it's "normal" to have a self-driving car and be able to afford the maintenance.

                                    Even those super cheap LiDARs may be over $10k installed by the time you add the other sensors, compute, labor, etc. I have no idea what the lifetime of a LiDAR sensor is, so maintenance is a concern too.

                                    I think we'll get there, but it'll be a while after robotaxis become a thing. The news seems to think LiDAR sensors will settle around $200, which would definitely be affordable.

                                    • ra7 2 days ago

                                      > The currently deployed Waymos have 5 $7,500 (at cost) LiDAR sensors in them.

                                      Only the "dome" LiDAR at the top costs $7500. The smaller perimeter LiDARs are much cheaper.

                                      • sangnoir 2 days ago

                                        > The currently deployed Waymos have 5 $7,500[...]

                                        This price from 5 years ago. How confident are you the unit price is still $7,500?

                                    • undefined 2 days ago
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                                      • FireBeyond 2 days ago

                                        > They were the most expensive component we put in the car; if I'm remembering right, a single LiDAR sensor cost more than the car itself and there were half a dozen or so of them on the car.

                                        Some of that was Tesla/Elon propaganda when he was talking about being camera-only.

                                      • refulgentis 2 days ago

                                        Comma? Geohit's scarce attention already flitted away, quite some time ago.

                                      • bdcravens 2 days ago

                                        > Hyundai/Genesis has some of the best cars on the market right now between the GV line and Ionic lines

                                        This also includes Kia, and the sibling to the Ioniq 5, the EV6

                                        • pton_xd 2 days ago

                                          > Hyundai/Genesis has some of the best cars on the market right now between the GV line and Ionic lines, and they seem to be improving faster than other manufacturers

                                          Best in what ways? I don't follow the car market so I'm curious for more specifics here.

                                          • sangnoir 2 days ago

                                            Warranty, charging rate (they pioneered the 800V architecture IIRC), bang-for-buck; Kia features are generous for the trim-levels compared to the competition.

                                            • shepherdjerred 2 days ago

                                              Anecdotally I’ve enjoyed the two Hyundais I’ve had. They are ICE but had great safety/usability features for the price.

                                              I’m not super into cars though so I don’t have much to compare to.

                                              • jsight 2 days ago

                                                Their charge curve is second only to Porsche at the moment, and at a much lower price point. The Ioniq 5 is arguably the best EV crossover on the market.

                                              • pb7 2 days ago

                                                >Waymo is now the clear leader in self-driving

                                                Always has been.

                                                • undefined 2 days ago
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                                                  • binoct 2 days ago

                                                    Why was this downvoted? Waymo has always been the clear leader in autonomous/self driving capabilities, at least for the true driverless goal. Briefly there were one or two milestones that Cruise got neck and neck on, but still think the parent’s sentiment holds true.

                                                    • lopkeny12ko a day ago

                                                      I can get into my Tesla, that I own and don't have to rent through an app, right now, and have FSD take me to the airport, or literally anywhere I want to go in the country. I don't have to be in one of San Francisco, Austin, Los Angeles, or whatever cities Waymo operates in. Tesla is leagues ahead, and to say Waymo is the "clear leader in autonomous driving" is a total joke. And this is coming from someone who regularly uses Waymo in SF. It's a cool tech demo but that's about it.

                                                      • binoct a day ago

                                                        I'm not comparing Waymo to FSD because FSD has not shown the ability to be "truly diverless", aka Level 4+, which was an important distinction I made (perhaps not too clearly) in my comment.

                                                        FSD is probably the leading Level 2 autonomy system. As you point out it covers a massively broader set of geographies and conditions than Waymo can. On the flip side, it won't even take you around the block if you just get in the back seat and expect it to handle everything. Perhaps next week we will see major update from Tesla towards Level 4, but until FSD breaks past L2 supervised capabilities they are different products solving for massively different trade-offs.

                                                      • shepherdjerred 2 days ago

                                                        You could argue Tesla has a lead since it is more general/widely deployed, but IMO Waymo is definitely the better long-term approach.

                                                        Tesla is never going to ship fully automated driving IMo

                                                        • AStonesThrow a day ago

                                                          The keys to Waymo's success and reliability are infrastructure and experience.

                                                          (Waymo is a subsidiary of Alphabet, Inc. That makes Google a sister company. Google doesn't operate Waymo.)

                                                          Google has built infrastructure and experience from the get-go, from driving Street View cars and building Maps, operating their own data centers, plenty of GPU application experience, teams of human support agents (yes they exist and respond), and just being really good at collecting, organizing, analyzing telemetry.

                                                          That's why I have confidence in the vehicles and Waymo Driver. This service is an iteration and evolutionary step. The Hive Mind behind the car has everything well in hand. Everyone else is just makin' cars and drivin' around alone. NO COMPARISON!

                                                  • _hark 2 days ago

                                                    I think self-driving technology is really cool, and I hope it reaches high-reliability as soon as possible.

                                                    But I would rather it is distributed in personally-owned cars than in fleet models. Would be a shame if the only access is through effectively "renting" rides from big corporations. Rooting for Comma and Tesla to get there and put it in vehicles which individuals own. Don't want some corporation to control mobility--their use policy could be restrictive to individual freedoms.

                                                    • bloppe 2 days ago

                                                      If you're going to buy and maintain your own car, why not just drive it yourself? A monopoly on self driving technology sounds scary, but I don't see it being actually harmful to anyone given how many ways there are to get around in cities

                                                      • andrewmcwatters 2 days ago

                                                        Comma isn't interested in anything beyond SAE Level 2, as a few engineers have spoken to their team.

                                                      • xnx 2 days ago

                                                        I think this is a vehicle diversification/hedge workaround for their initially planned Zeekr vehicle (https://waymo.com/blog/2021/12/expanding-our-waymo-one-fleet...) being subject to 100% tariffs.

                                                        • fotta 2 days ago

                                                          I hope they’re not getting rid of the Zeekr because as far as I know Hyundai doesn’t make any vehicles that have wheelchair ramp conversions and Waymo was planning a wheelchair accessible version of the Zeekr. If Cruise hadn’t so colossally screwed the pooch their next-gen custom vehicle was going to have an accessible version too which I was excited for because they were already testing it.

                                                          • NullHypothesist 2 days ago

                                                            Doesn't seem like getting rid so much as optionality... Makes a lot of sense for Waymo to partner multiple OEMs. I'd imagine, barring an outright ban, some Zeekrs will likely find their way to US streets. I'm curious if this will accelerate Waymo's expansion into international markets, as they've doubtlessly agreed to purchasing some minimum number of Zeekr vehicles. Maybe they launch in Japan, Australia, Singapore, or UAE in the next year or two to put that supply to use?? Shot in the dark, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a "Waymo Launching in Singapore" headline on here sometime before next April.

                                                          • azinman2 2 days ago

                                                            I very much look forward to owning a car with the Waymo stack. Hope this comes sooner than later! Just don’t want it to be a Hyundai, but this feature would cause me to overlook everything else about the car.

                                                            • lucianbr 2 days ago

                                                              I don't think Waymo will sell you one. Every corporation out there is trying to move to a subscription model, even legacy car manufacturers (subscription for heated seats anyone?). Operating a robotaxi fleet is much more profitable than selling robotaxis, if they actually work well.

                                                              • klooney 2 days ago

                                                                > Operating a robotaxi fleet is much more profitable than selling robotaxis

                                                                I'm a little skeptical- taxi companies and ride share companies both have a reputation for sloughing off a ton of maintenance costs on drivers. If you own end to end, you can't play that trick.

                                                                • keenmaster 2 days ago

                                                                  The nice thing about capitalism is that it doesn’t care what a company wants (in a properly functioning non-monopolistic market. I’d say that the international market for automobiles is more functional than not, despite some degree of subsidisation and tariffs). I’m sure Ford wishes it could charge you $100k for a Ford Explorer but it can’t because it’s not part of an oligopolistic centralized pricing mafia.

                                                                  If self-driving tech becomes cheap enough, and there’s enough demand for it, then competitive pressures will ensure that people can own self-driving cars. That being said, the same competitive forces can make using a fleet much cheaper than owning a car, and you might want a subscription to the Mercedes fleet rather than owning an autonomous mid-tier car if those things are equivalently priced and you live in a fleet-dense area.

                                                                  • isx726552 2 days ago

                                                                    Sadly collusion among market leaders is rampant even though there are (poorly enforced) laws against it, so it’s not too far fetched for companies to all lock arms and say they won’t do something. It’s all too easy to get away with that, especially when there are high barriers to entry (as with cars).

                                                                    • mitthrowaway2 2 days ago

                                                                      Capitalism isn't so friendly to people who find themselves in a shrinking market segment.

                                                                      If competitive forces do make using a fleet much cheaper than owning a car, then individually-owned cars lose the economies of scale that keep them affordable for the middle class. The costs of supporting and distributing to private owners go way up; the risk of liabilities from private owners making unlicensed modifications to their vehicles becomes a heavy burden, and eventually privately-owned cars becomes a luxury market only available to the very top. They become impractical even for the people who own them, as homes and destinations gradually stop being built with parking lots and garages, as most vehicles drive off after dropping off their riders.

                                                                      Changes in the equilibrium can really shift things, and when a replacement comes into the market, it can also make things expensive that used to be cheap. For example, public payphones used to be ubiquitous; now they're rare and expensive to maintain relative to the income they bring in, and their rarity has made the remaining ones become targets for vandalism. The segment of people who would use them has shrank, and the supply of parts has decreased too, and that means that it becomes unaffordable to provide them at all.

                                                                      Now even if you prefer payphones, and even if your phone company would gladly provide them for you for the right price, you can no longer find a price point that makes that deal work out, merely because of the shift in preferences of a sufficient quantity of third-party individuals.

                                                                • wcunning 2 days ago

                                                                  This is an interesting move given Hyundai's position in funding Motional, who didn't seem totally incapable of creating AV tech. Does anyone know what their future looks like after this partnership?

                                                                  • coffee-- 2 days ago

                                                                    Gonna miss those nice Jaguars

                                                                    • jitl 2 days ago
                                                                      • ra7 2 days ago

                                                                        Jaguar has built thousands of new I-Pace vehicles for Waymo. It’s probably Waymo buying the full remaining capacity before I-Pace production is shut down.

                                                                        https://x.com/mike_is_typing/status/1827431086990962983

                                                                        • Fricken 2 days ago

                                                                          It was 6 years ago Waymo announced it would acquire 20,000 I-pace vehicles. It's probably some amount less than 20k they'll actually be acquiring.

                                                                          https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/27/17165992/waymo-jaguar-i-p...

                                                                          • ra7 2 days ago

                                                                            My guess is they shelved plans for procuring all 20,000 I-Pace vehicles, but then saw 10x ride growth in a year and with tariffs looming over Zeekr vehicles, they bought out I-Pace production capacity to meet short-term demand.

                                                                          • jeffbee 2 days ago

                                                                            It might be a little more accurate to say that the contract manufacturer which made the I-Pace also made a lot of them for Waymo.

                                                                            • ra7 2 days ago

                                                                              True. Magna, the contract manufacturer, is also a Waymo investor interestingly.

                                                                            • refulgentis 2 days ago

                                                                              What is it?

                                                                          • seanmcdirmid 2 days ago

                                                                            They didn’t mention cancelling their relationship with Jaguar. I think this is just to get more scale and another car supplier?

                                                                            • alephnerd 2 days ago

                                                                              Jaguar Land Rover is deprecating the I-Pace (and almost every other model) in order to concentrate on the F-Pace EV SUV along with newer greenfield EV models.

                                                                              JLR is also owned by India's Tata Group, and most of the upcoming EV models share components with Tata Motor's EVs (eg. Batteries, power electronics, etc).

                                                                              It can be treated as part of JLR's long term pivot towards the India market, where SUVs and CUVs tend to have strong PMF unlike Sedans, and I-Pace, being manufactured in Austria, is difficult to operate in for an Indian company because of the lack of EU-India FTA.

                                                                          • drpossum 2 days ago

                                                                            I will never consider buying a Hyundai for several decades after their inexcusable security practices led to my insurer jacking up my insurance rates just for owning a Hyundai, despite being an earlier model.

                                                                            • Rebelgecko a day ago

                                                                              When I was shopping around for insurance quotes, an Ioniq 5 was like 2% more expensive to insure than a Prius Prime

                                                                              • BossingAround 2 days ago

                                                                                Really? I thought it was mainly KIA who had security problems. Hyundai as well? Is there a car company that's known for good security practices?

                                                                                • drpossum 2 days ago

                                                                                  The posts around this regarding Kia are right that they are under the same "group" with Hyundai having a significant ownership stake.

                                                                                  The uptake is both have these problems and to be extremely wary of either either until they concretely show they can be trusted again. Having worked in several different software shops my experience has been software culture and security culture are extremely hard to change. It absolutely requires major restructuring in people and often major investments in reworking of software with the right priorities.

                                                                                  I won't be holding my breath. The most common solution (practically the only solution I've ever seen happen) is to put bandaids on and just keep reworking the big ball of mud.

                                                                                  • Workaccount2 2 days ago

                                                                                    They are the same company

                                                                                    • BossingAround 2 days ago

                                                                                      Oh, I had no idea. So it's similar to Lexus/Toyota. TIL, thank you.

                                                                                      • AlotOfReading 2 days ago

                                                                                        Kia and Hyundai aren't actually the same company, but they're very closely related. Hyundai group (Hyundai automotive's parent company) acquired a significant stake in Kia when they went bankrupt during the Asian financial crisis. In exchange, Kia received significant percentages of many Hyundai group companies, including automotive. They share components and designs, but they're separate companies with their own teams, factories and marketing.

                                                                                        • JoelEinbinder 2 days ago

                                                                                          Seems like Hyundai own 33% of Kia, rather than it just being a brand under the same company like Lexus/Toyota. They share some things and compete on others.

                                                                                          • bryanlarsen 2 days ago

                                                                                            It's a lot more complicated than that. They also have some common owners, and Kia owns parts of some Hyundai subsidiaries. Chaebol's are complicated beasts.

                                                                                          • bryanlarsen 2 days ago

                                                                                            Hyundai and Kia were two separate companies that merged in 1998. Genesis is their premium brand, their Lexus equivalent. They claim to differentiate the three brands with: Hyundai: bold, Kia: sporty, Genesis: premium. Your guess is as good as mine what the difference between bold and sporty is.

                                                                                            • klyrs 2 days ago

                                                                                              Comparing the bold looks of the Ioniq6 to the sporty looks of the EV6, I conclude that bold is convex and sporty is concave.

                                                                                            • rendang 2 days ago

                                                                                              Maybe more similar to Subaru & Toyota - not different brands under 1 company, but 2 companies one of which has a stake in the other

                                                                                          • raisedbyninjas 2 days ago

                                                                                            Hyundai and Kia from some recent models years were missing the engine immobilizer resulting in many thefts. Maybe you're thinking of the vulnerability on Kia's web portal.

                                                                                          • peab 2 days ago

                                                                                            Same. My elantra got stolen TWICE

                                                                                            • zzzeek 2 days ago

                                                                                              I own an Ioniq 5 and there was no such unusual change in price for insurance. maybe you should have changed your insurance company rather than your car.

                                                                                              • drpossum 2 days ago

                                                                                                The pointed I wanted to make was the scope of it was that bad. Hyundai is the problem.

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                                                                                                • aramova 2 days ago

                                                                                                  Well shit, now Waymos will be getting stolen by scanning the license plate for a USB thumbdrive.