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
Related Stories
Apple has an order of magnitude more cars in its self-driving fleet:
Apple has expanded its fleet of self-driving cars in California, registering an additional two dozen vehicles with the state's Department of Motor Vehicles. It's a significant expansion for a company that has been seen as lagging in the race to build self-driving cars.
Apple originally registered three Lexus Rx450h SUVs under its permit to test autonomous vehicles in April 2017. Since then, it has acquired an additional 24 Lexus SUVs, according to the DMV: two in July, seven in October, two in November, six in December, and seven in January. The news was first reported by Bloomberg.
Apple has scaled back its self-driving car plans from creating a vehicle to creating software for them.
The Waymo v. Uber jury trial is set to begin Monday and is expected to end during the week of February 19. It's not a matter of good vs. evil:
"The trial will be a trial on Waymo's claims of trade secret misappropriation, not a trial on Uber's litigation practices or corporate culture," Judge Alsup wrote on January 30.
[...] Alsup went on to say that both sides have engaged in "half-truths and other slick litigation conduct" and that Waymo, which has "whined—often without good reason—at every turn in this case," essentially needs to put up or shut up.
"To repeat, the central issue in this case remains whether or not Uber misappropriated Waymo's trade secrets, not whether or not Uber is an evil corporation," the judge continued. "Waymo's decision to devote so much time and effort to pursuing matters with so little connection to the merits raises the troubling possibility that Waymo is unwilling or unable to prove up a solid case on the merits and instead seeks to inflame the jury against Uber with a litany of supposed bad acts."
Also at The Verge and FT (paywalled).
Previously: Waymo v. Uber Continues, Will Not Move to Arbitration
Waymo's Case Against Uber "Shrinks" After Trade Secret Claim Thrown Out
Uber v. Waymo Trial Delayed Because Uber Withheld Evidence
A Spectator Who Threw A Wrench In The Waymo/Uber Lawsuit
Related: Uber Letter Alleges Surveillance on Politicians and Competitors
The Fall of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick
Waymo Orders Thousands More Chrysler Pacifica Minivans for Driverless Fleet
Waymo and Jaguar will build up to 20,000 self-driving electric SUVs
Waymo and Jaguar Land Rover have inked a deal that will add tens of thousands of all-electric I-Pace SUVs to the Alphabet unit's growing lineup of self-driving taxis. The I-Pace, which made its global debut earlier this month, is not as much of a people-mover as Waymo's Chrysler Pacifica minivans, but it will serve as a more high-end ride for those willing to pay a premium for their driverless transportation.
The first prototype I-Pace with Waymo's self-driving technology will hit the road for public testing at the end of 2018, and officially become part of Waymo's commercial ride-hailing service starting in 2020. Waymo and Jaguar Land Rover's engineers will work in tandem to build these cars to be self-driving from the start, rather than retrofitting them after they come off the assembly line. Long-term, the companies say they plan to build up to 20,000 vehicles in the first two years of production, with the goal of serving a potential 1 million trips a day. It's unclear how much money would be trading hands under the deal.
Related: Waymo Orders Thousands More Chrysler Pacifica Minivans for Driverless Fleet
Google/Waymo Announces Testing of Self-Driving Trucks in Atlanta, Georgia
Waymo to Start First Driverless Car Service Next Month
In just a few weeks, humanity may take its first paid ride into the age of driverless cars. Waymo, the secretive subsidiary of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., is planning to launch the world's first commercial driverless car service in early December, according to a person familiar with the plans. It will operate under a new brand and compete directly with Uber and Lyft.
Waymo is keeping the new name a closely guarded secret until the formal announcement, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the plans haven't been made public.
"Waymo has been working on self-driving technology for nearly a decade, with safety at the core of everything we do," the company said in an emailed statement. A Waymo spokesperson declined to comment on the name of the new service or timing of the launch.
It's a big milestone for self-driving cars, but it won't exactly be a "flip-the-switch" moment. Waymo isn't planning a splashy media event, and the service won't be appearing in an app store anytime soon, according to the person familiar with the program. Instead, things will start small—perhaps dozens or hundreds of authorized riders in the suburbs around Phoenix, covering about 100 square miles.
The first wave of customers will likely draw from Waymo's Early Rider Program—a test group of 400 volunteer families who have been riding Waymos for more than a year. The customers who move to the new service will be released from their non-disclosure agreements, which means they'll be free to talk about it, snap selfies, and take friends or even members of the media along for rides. New customers in the Phoenix area will be gradually phased in as Waymo adds more vehicles to its fleet to ensure a balance of supply and demand.
Related: Google Waymo Vehicles to Hit the Road This Month
Waymo Orders Thousands More Chrysler Pacifica Minivans for Driverless Fleet
Walmart and Waymo to Trial Driverless Shuttle Service in Phoenix for Grocery Pickups
Waymo has announced a driverless taxi service called Waymo One, but it will only be usable for around 400 preapproved "early riders" in the Phoenix metro area, rather than the general public. While self-driving Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans will be used, they will continue to retain a safety driver behind the wheel.
Waymo's "new" service could be described as a launch in name only:
The banner Waymo is unfurling, though, is tattered by caveats. Waymo One will only be available to the 400 or so people already enrolled in Waymo's early rider program, which has been running in the calm, sunny Phoenix suburb of Chandler for about 18 months. (They can bring guests with them and have been freed from non-disclosure agreements that kept them from publicly discussing their experiences.) More glaringly, the cars will have a human behind the wheel, there to take control in case the car does something it shouldn't.
So no, this is not the anyone-can-ride, let-the-robot-drive experience Waymo and its competitors have been promising for years. Building a reliably safe system has proven far harder than just about everyone anticipated and its cars aren't ready to drive without human oversight. But Waymo promised to launch a commercial service sometime in 2018, it didn't want to miss its deadline and risk its reputation as the leader of the industry it essentially created, and not even the might of Waymo parent company Alphabet can delay the end of the calendar year.
So Waymo is pushing out a software update, tweaking its branding, and calling it a launch.
Also at Reuters, Gizmodo, The Atlantic, and Ars Technica.
See also: Waymo's driverless cars on the road: Cautious, clunky, impressive
Previously: Google/Waymo Self-Driving Minivan Tested with the Public in Phoenix AZ
Waymo Orders Thousands More Chrysler Pacifica Minivans for Driverless Fleet
Walmart and Waymo to Trial Driverless Shuttle Service in Phoenix for Grocery Pickups
Google's Waymo Plans to Launch a Self-Driving Car Service in December (the service falls short of what is described in this November article)
Waymo's robot minivans are ready to roll in the Bay Area for the first time since COVID-19 outbreak
Waymo's self-driving cars are returning to Bay Area roads for the first time since the company halted its public testing in early March because of the coronavirus outbreak. The Alphabet-owned company plans to return its fleet of autonomous minivans to service starting June 8th, according to an email obtained by The Verge.
Waymo's self-driving cars will be put to use delivering packages for two Bay Area non-profits: illustrator Wendy McNaughton's #DrawTogether, which provides art kits to Bay Area kids; and Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
The company is the latest autonomous vehicle operator to discover that doing deliveries allows it to sidestep restrictions that would otherwise require them to keep their autonomous vehicles off the road. Waymo, along with the rest of California's AV companies, paused on-road testing in mid-March after the city issued a "shelter-in-place" order banning all nonessential travel. That order does not have a set end date.
Waymo's robot minivans are already back on the road in the Phoenix area, as well as the company's private test facility in California's Central Valley.
Previously: Waymo Orders Thousands More Chrysler Pacifica Minivans for Driverless Fleet
Waymo Finally Let a Reporter Ride in a Fully Driverless Car
Waymo Drivers vs. Coronavirus
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @06:11AM (2 children)
Man's ferocious tadpoles rape woman's egg in situ, and later dump it into a garbage bin. Compared to that, the dome isn't nearly as biased or cavey.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @07:00AM (1 child)
Knowing the penalties for moderating something as Spam, is it possible to cause the Spam mod to drop the score to -2, so that once *anyone* with enough karma to issue such a mod does so, that post will drop completely under the radar. No-one but the Soylent staff or someone deliberately cruising at -2 will see it. No other negative mod would drop it that low... only a Spam can go that low.
Reason being that there are often perfectly good posts running with offtopic and troll mods, albeit flamebaits are exactly that, and are usually accurately moderated.
It effectively will remove the post from all view, making it hardly worth the effort to type it in if the first modpoint-haver kills it off with just one mod.
Won't take two. Just one will do. Knowing every Spam mod will be logged for review by Soylent staff, and the issuer thereof held accountable.
Of course, if the moderator has misused his privilege, severe penalties to him as well... require Karma to be 40+ to issue a spam mod, and drop it to zero if he abuses such a delegation of authority. I feel the destruction of someone else's post is a helluva lot of authority to grant someone, but someone HAS to "take the trash out".
I guess its another way of saying if I come into the restroom stall and there's a turd in the toilet, anyone with sufficient karma can flush it.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @08:06AM
"there's a turd in the toilet"
Don't flush it yet. A jew might come along who wants to nibble on it.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @01:35PM (5 children)
I'm a little surprised that Waymo/Google are doubling down on Chrysler products, when the company is close to being split up by their Fiat owners (Jeep & RAM trucks are profitable, and not much else). Maybe Google figures they can just buy the minivan division when the break-up comes?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @02:33PM (3 children)
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)
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)
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
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.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Wednesday January 31 2018, @06:44PM
Once Google cements its dominant position in the industry, it can probably sell its AI system to other car manufacturers. At that point, presumably the other players will stop playing and just pony up the fee so they aren't pushed out of the car market entirely.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by donkeyhotay on Wednesday January 31 2018, @07:30PM (1 child)
Is it just me? They resemble the original Ghostbusters ambulance. :-D
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @09:19PM
Just you, all I can see is white, long shape, and some shit on top. Maybe there is actually a tear in the veil between worlds and all this self-driving car nonsense is really just a cover to transport thousands of ghostbusters around without anyone realizing what's up!?! Sorry I jest :)