Honda and Waymo Enter Self-driving Technology Discussions
- Thursday, December 22nd, 2016
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Honda has entered formal discussions with Waymo, formerly Google self-driving car project, to integrate its self-driving technology with Honda vehicles.
Honda hopes that, if the partnership goes ahead, it would allow both companies to learn about the integration of Waymo’s self-driving sensors, software and computing platform into Honda vehicles.
As part of the discussions, Honda says it could modify vehicles to accommodate Waymo’s self-driving technology – with the intention of these vehicles joining Waymo’s existing fleet.
If an agreement is reached, the Honda engineers – based in Silicon Valley, California and Tochigi, Japan – say they would work closely with the Waymo engineers – based in Mountain View, California and Novi, Michigan.
Just a few days ago, it was announced that Waymo and Chrysler had completed the production of 100 2017 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans with full self-driving operations. Should an agreement be reached with Honda, it would become Waymo’s second partner car maker. Waymo’s CEO John Krafcik made it clear, when Waymo became an independent company under the Alphabet umbrella, that it would remain a self-driving car technology firm, rather than an auto manufacturer – choosing to work with car maker partners.