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posted by janrinok on Wednesday January 31 2018, @04:49AM   Printer-friendly
from the waymo'-on-the-way-for-waymo dept.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/30/16948356/waymo-google-fiat-chrysler-pacfica-minivan-self-driving

Waymo, the self-driving unit of Google parent Alphabet, has reached a deal with one of Detroit's Big Three automakers to dramatically expand its fleet of autonomous vehicles. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced today that it would supply "thousands" of additional Chrysler Pacifica minivans to Waymo, with the first deliveries starting at the end of 2018.

Neither Waymo nor FCA would disclose the specific number of vehicles that were bought, nor the amount of money that was trading hands. The manufacturer's suggested retail price for the 2018 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivan starts at $39,995. A thousand minivans would cost $40 million, so this was at the very least an eight-figure deal.

Waymo currently has 600 of FCA's minivans in its fleet, some of which are used to shuttle real people around for its Early Rider program in Arizona. The first 100 were delivered when the partnership was announced in May 2016, and an additional 500 were delivered in 2017. The minivans are plug-in hybrid variants with Waymo's self-driving hardware and software built in. The companies co-staff a facility in Michigan, near FCA's US headquarters, to engineer the vehicles. The company also owns a fleet of self-driving Lexus RX SUVs that is has been phasing out in favor of the new minivans. (The cute "Firefly" prototypes were also phased out last year.)

Also at Ars Technica and Bloomberg.

Previously: Apple Expands Self-Driving Fleet From 3 to 27 Cars


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @02:33PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @02:33PM (#630952)

    They are a weak player with no autonomous vehicle project of its own, so they will bend the most to accommodate Waymo's custom requirements. Couple thousand vehicles are really mostly a development pool - doesn't need to be tightly coupled with whatever end products come out of the project.

  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday January 31 2018, @06:20PM (2 children)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday January 31 2018, @06:20PM (#631065)

    Sounds reasonable. I sure hope they don't build a production fleet of autonomous vehicles with Chryslers though, unless they want a lot of breakdowns. Chryslers are probably some of the least reliable vehicles sold in America now.

    • (Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday February 01 2018, @05:00AM (1 child)

      by anubi (2828) on Thursday February 01 2018, @05:00AM (#631349) Journal

      Status symbols do not need to be reliable... just expensive.

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
      • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday February 01 2018, @03:29PM

        by Grishnakh (2831) on Thursday February 01 2018, @03:29PM (#631496)

        Chryslers aren't expensive; they're like the McDonald's of the car world. I can't imagine anyone buying one to show off their wealth. But we're talking about Waymo here, which is developing robocars; reliability is pretty important there. If they just wanted to show off expensive cars, they'd buy BMWs or Mercedes or something, not Chryslers.