Recently, the political, military, and economic race between China and the US have become the keynote of global affairs. While US announced the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) this August, the NA market and industry had built a wall barring Chinese self-owned auto brands ( and other foreign brands) for local market development, which invites more confrontation. However, in the Chinese market, two major US brands, GM and Ford, continue to operate their long-running local joint venture without setbacks. With the federal government dishing out deglobalization policies like this, the long-term effects on its domestic auto market and automakers’ development are more harmful than beneficial. However, in mid-November, global autonomous driving tech frontrunner Waymo and the Chinese Geely’s Zeekr, which just formed last year, announced the first EV concept car designed for fully-autonomous driving in Los Angeles: Zeekr M-Vision. Based on Geely’s “SEA-M” EV platform, M-Vision has L4 fully autonomous driving functions and is set for mass production in 2024. Leaving aside whether L4 technology could be implemented in 2024, when viewing from the collaboration between the high-level AI Waymo and a Chinese-possessed auto business, the predicament of autonomous driving’s commercialization for the time being eventually needs to be solved by the technology solution and viable business model. For now, the ongoing race between China and the US is not what these two companies should concern about.
Although Waymo’s trial run in many locations around US had been executed for a few years, and the partnering automaker and car model had been changed several times, the company’s autonomous driving system still relies on the way of “aftermarket installation” to conduct road tests. With unintegrated design like these, Waymo’s products don’t have commercialization value for mass-production, even if they pass the tests. On the other hand, M-Vision boasts a face-to-face seating arrangement, B-pillar-less design for ease of ingress and egress, and claims a power battery with 16+ hours nonstop drive and warranty of 5 years with 500k km. These specs are more than enough for general customers or rental/car-sharing business owners. As for the location arrangement of autonomous driving sensors, M-Vision’s external sensors design goes perfectly with the car body and is likely to be accepted by most consumers. As a whole, M-Vision is very close to my ideal autonomous car design by fully displaying occupants’ freedom of space and extra-time availability thru autonomous driving tech. The astounding fast design and works efficiency on completion of the concept car within a year since the two companies’ collaboration announcement shows their mature and immense R&D strength, and also implies the urgency for autonomous driving tech’s commercialization for profit (especially after Argo.ai’s disbandment).
Currently, there isn’t an answer to which automaker will manufacture and sell in the US once M-Vision is ready for mass production (the IRA forbids any Chinese self-owned brand to set up factories or sell products in the US). However, with the immense economic influence of Waymo’s parent company, Alphabet, a satisfied answer for Waymo is for sure. More importantly, Waymo’s following participation and business opportunities in the Chinese market will go far and beyond.