Jaguar Land Rover has announced a tie-up with Google parent Alphabet's self-driving subsidiary Waymo to develop the first premium driverless electric car for Waymo's service.
The long-term strategic partnership will see the two firms working on designing and engineering driverless Jaguar I-Pace vehicles – the company's first all-electric SUV.
Waymo Jaguar I-Paces, complete with the self-driving tech from Waymo, will start testing later this year, and up to 20,000 of the cars will be built in the first two years of production. The new cars will be manufactured alongside the current batch in Graz, Austria.
Read more: Jaguar Land Rover reveals electric car software tie-up with Blackberry
Here's how the Waymo self-driving I-Pace looks:
(Click or tap on the images to see them in full screen)
They will be made available for riders of Waymo's driverless service, with the firms saying this could amount to 1m trips a day for the cars.
Waymo's driverless transportation service is planned to launch later this year, allowing members of the public to use its app to request a vehicle in the US. The firms have not announced any locations beyond that yet.
Dr Ralf Speth, JLR's chief executive, said:
Our passion for further advancing smart mobility needs expert long-term partners. In joining forces with Waymo we are pioneering to push the boundaries of technology. Together we will deliver the self-driving Waymo Jaguar I-Pace with the grace, space and eco-pace that customers expect.
The companies said the tie-up will tap into their shared goals of making cars safer, freeing up time for people, and improving mobility for everyone.
John Krafcik, Waymo's chief executive, said: "While we've been focused at Waymo on building the world's most experienced driver, the team at Jaguar Land Rover has developed an all-new battery-electric platform that looks to set a new standard in safety, design and capability."
It marks the latest big deal secured by the British car giant. Last week, JLR announced that Blackberry will provide the software for its next-generation electric vehicles.
The firm pledged last year that all of its new cars would be available in either electric or hybrid versions by 2020.
Read more: Google's Waymo lifts the bonnet on driverless cars: Four things we learned
[contf] [contfnew] 
CityAM
[contfnewc] [contfnewc]
