The Alphabet subsidiary also confirmed plans to expand the size of its driverless service areas in San Francisco and Phoenix. It will likewise more than double the reach of its rider-only service area in Downtown Phoenix, connecting the airport service to the city’s downtown area. Through these expansions, Waymo is hoping to provide its customers in the two cities with more opportunities to benefit from the service, while broadening its scope to gain a wider consumer base.

Both the PHX Airport offering and the extended service area can be accessed through Waymo One – the company’s smartphone app which hosts its autonomous robotaxi service.

Initially, the collaboration will run multiple pilots along the Dallas-Houston transportation lane. In these pilots Waymo Via’s autonomous trucks will haul C.H. Robinson’s customer freight. During and after them, both companies will work to aid the development and expansion of autonomous driving technologies as an additional transportation solution.

Ultimately, both companies aim to explore the benefits of autonomy for trucks in a number of areas. These include capacity enhancements, improvements to the carrier and driver experience, and the business challenges posed by long-term driver shortages.

With a growing fleet and geographical footprint, Waymo Via needs a robust and scalable solution for truck maintenance. Ryder has a network of more than 500 maintenance facilities in the U.S. and nearly 90 years of fleet maintenance expertise. The two companies will partner on servicing and evolving maintenance practices for autonomously driven trucks across Waymo Via sites in Texas, Arizona, California, Michigan, and Ohio, as well as roadside service between hubs.

Waymo brings over a decade of experience in building autonomous driving technology, having driven more than 20 million miles on public roads across 10 U.S. states and 20 billion miles in simulation.

In total, the simulated Waymo Driver completely avoided or mitigated 100% of crashes aside from the crashes in which it was struck from behind, including every instance that involved a pedestrian or cyclist (20 simulations in total). This is the first time an autonomous technology company has shared its evaluation for how the system might perform in real-world fatal crash scenarios.

Carefully replaying fatal crashes
We started by simulating 72 fatal crashes as they occurred on public roads in our operating domain, which covers thousands of miles of road in southeast Phoenix. Since many of these crashes involved two vehicles, we ran separate experiments simulating the Waymo Driver in the role of each vehicle—first replacing the vehicle that initiated the crash (the “initiator”) with the Waymo Driver, and then replacing the vehicle that responded to the other vehicle’s actions (the “responder”) with the Waymo Driver. That left us with 91 simulations in total.
When we swapped in the Waymo Driver as the simulated initiator (52 simulations), it avoided every crash by consistent, competent driving, and obeying the rules of the road—yielding appropriately to traffic, executing proper gap selection, and observing traffic signals. Here, for example, you can see on the bottom of the screen that the simulated Waymo Driver avoids a reconstructed version of a real-life fatal crash by obeying the speed limit—and not running a red light, as the initiator did in real life:

But as we know, human drivers can make mistakes. They sometimes speed excessively through red lights, fail to yield on turns, and drive while tired, distracted or impaired. Since humans will be on the road for the foreseeable future, it’s important to understand how well autonomous driving systems perform in response to mistakes made by humans.
That’s one of the reasons why we ran simulations with the Waymo Driver in the role of the responder. If the Waymo Driver performed consistently better than the human drivers in these crashes, then that helps indicate the broader safety benefits our autonomous technology can achieve. In fact, that is exactly what our simulations suggest:

• When the Waymo Driver was placed in the responder role, it completely avoided 82% of simulated crashes. In fact, in the vast majority of events, it did so with smooth, consistent driving—without the need to brake hard or make an urgent evasive response.
• In another 10% of scenarios when the simulated Waymo Driver was the responder—all at an intersection when another vehicle turned across its path— it took action that mitigated the severity of the crash.
• Only 8% of responder crash simulations were unchanged. In all of these, the human-driven vehicle struck the rear of the simulated Waymo Driver when it was either stopped or traveling at a constant speed, giving the Waymo Driver little opportunity to respond.

In other words, even when a human driver did something to initiate a crash, such as running a red light, the simulated Waymo Driver avoided or mitigated the vast majority of these fatal crashes.
Replaying the same scenario discussed above, for example, the simulated Waymo Driver is approaching from the right of the screen, and has the right of way at a green light. But as it approaches the intersection, it spots the speeding car approaching from the bottom, predicts that it isn’t going to stop at the red light, and slows considerably until the speeder passes, avoiding the crash:

Advancing best-practice safety techniques
While these are early results, and we are cognizant that they only represent one of many indicators that should be used for assessing our performance under real-world circumstances, we believe they demonstrate the potential of AV technology to improve safety.
Given that the version of the Waymo Driver we tested in simulation is the same version that we currently have on the road, these results are a testament not only to the capabilities of the Waymo Driver, but also to the rigor of our more than a decade of experience and our safety readiness framework. Since 94% of crashes involve human error, we believe we have an opportunity to improve road safety by replacing the human driver with the Waymo Driver. This study helps validate that belief.
By sharing this data, we’re living up to our obligation to demonstrate the trustworthiness of the technology we’re building. We encourage other companies developing autonomous driving technology to do the same. We plan to continue providing additional evidence to allow people to reach their own conclusions about our safety readiness.
This research was made possible because of the thorough crash reports the Chandler Police Department and Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) prepare following fatal crashes, and we’re grateful to ADOT, Chandler Police Department, and Arizona Department of Public Safety for making these reports available to the public upon request. This ultimately helps make possible the improvements to roadway and vehicle design that have improved road safety over recent decades, and collaboration with public safety bodies is important for continued improvements.
The safety of autonomous driving technology is the deliberate result of careful development and thorough and continuous evaluation and refinement. This study provides yet more useful demonstration of its potential safety benefits.

FCA US LLC and Waymo have announced they will expand their partnership with an agreement to add up to 62,000 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans to Waymo’s self-driving fleet. This venture builds upon a previous commitment, announced in January, to deliver thousands of vehicles to Waymo’s driverless transportation service. Vehicle delivery is expected to begin in late 2018.

FCA US and Waymo also announced today that they are beginning discussions about the use of Waymo self-driving technology, including potentially through licensing, in a FCA-manufactured vehicle available to retail customers.

Currently, Waymo is the only company with a fleet of fully self-driving cars, with no one in the driver seat, on public roads. Later this year, Waymo will launch the world’s first self-driving transportation service, allowing the public to use Waymo’s app to request a vehicle.

FCA and Waymo first announced their partnership in May 2016. The first-of-its-kind collaboration brought engineers from FCA and Waymo together to integrate Waymo’s fully self-driving system into the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivan, leveraging each company’s individual strengths and resources. Since then, FCA and Waymo engineers have continued working together to support Waymo’s expansion and to evolve the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivan with self-driving technology.

The self-driving Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans are one of the most advanced vehicles on the road today, equipped with Waymo’s self-driving system, including a powerful hardware suite and software honed over 6 million miles of on-road testing.

To date, FCA has delivered 600 Pacifica Hybrid minivans to Waymo.

Source: FCA

• Jaguar I-PACE will be the first premium self-driving electric vehicle in Waymo’s fleet
• First Waymo self-driving I-PACE will start tests in 2018, and become part of Waymo’s driverless fleet from 2020
• Up to 20,000 vehicles to join Waymo’s fleet in the first two years of production
• Jaguar Land Rover and Waymo to explore other future collaborations

Jaguar Land Rover and Waymo announce a long-term strategic partnership. Together, the two companies will develop self-driving electric vehicle for Waymo’s driverless transportation service.

Jaguar Land Rover and Waymo (formerly Google self-driving car project) will work together to design and engineer self-driving Jaguar I-PACE vehicles. This long-term strategic collaboration will further Waymo and Jaguar Land Rover’s shared goals: to make cars safer, free up people’s valuable time and improve mobility for everyone.

Waymo Jaguar I-PACEs, equipped with Waymo’s self-driving technology, will start testing later this year. On-road testing and capturing real-world data will allow Waymo and Jaguar Land Rover engineers to refine technology and deliver optimum safety and reliability. Up to 20,000 I-PACEs will be built in the first two years of production and be available for riders of Waymo’s driverless service, serving a potential one million trips per day.

Waymo apparently is the only company with a fleet of fully self-driving cars — with no one in the front seat — on public roads. Later this year Waymo will launch the world’s first self-driving transportation service allowing members of the public to use Waymo’s app to request a vehicle.

Source: JLR

AutoNation franchised stores, AutoNation USA stores and other AutoNation locations, will provide long-term vehicle maintenance and repairs for Waymo’s self-driving Chrysler Pacifica hybrid vehicle fleet, and will expand with Waymo as they add additional brands. Having served over 40 million customers and representing 33 brands, AutoNation is uniquely positioned to work with Waymo as it expands its operations. AutoNation will offer complex mechanical and cosmetic repairs to maintain Waymo’s self-driving fleet.

Mike Jackson, Chairman, CEO and President, said, “We are excited to partner with Waymo, who is a leader of self-driving technology. AutoNation remains uniquely positioned to lead our industry towards the future of mobility, due to our brand, exceptional service and maintenance capabilities, and commitment to innovation. AutoNation and Waymo are like minded in our joint mission to keep people safe whenever they are in a vehicle.”

John Krafcik, Chief Executive Officer, Waymo, added, “AutoNation has built a reputation for providing excellent service and maintenance that makes cars safer and more reliable. Both companies have a shared vision of enhancing the in-car experience of our customers. With its compelling national footprint, modern facilities and trained technicians, AutoNation will help assure that Waymo vehicles are always in top condition as we bring fully self-driving cars to the public.”

“As a long standing partner in vehicle sales and service for our brands, FCA commends AutoNation for preparing their operations to support the maintenance and service of autonomous vehicles, including the Chrysler Pacifica Minivans produced and developed for self-driving in collaboration between FCA and Waymo,” Sergio Marchionne, Chief Executive Officer, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

Source: AutoNation

Waymo’s fully self-driving technology has driven 3.5 million miles on real-world roads for over eight years and counting. In that time, they’ve built a comprehensive safety program to guide their testing and development of fully self-driving technology.

Waymo has come out with a Safety Report that provides an overview of the processes for the safe testing and deployment of this technology, the work they’re doing to make it safe and easy to use.

Self-driving vehicles hold the promise to improve road safety and offer new mobility options to millions of people. Whether they’re saving lives or helping people run errands, commute to work, or drop kids off at school, fully self-driving vehicles hold enormous potential to transform people’s lives for the better. Safety is at the core of Waymo’s mission — it’s why this was founded over eight years ago as the Google self-driving car project.

Waymo’s Safety Report also addresses the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) federal policy framework for autonomous vehicles: Automated Driving Systems 2.0: A Vision for Safety. The DOT framework outlines 12 safety design
elements, and encourages companies testing and deploying self-driving systems to address each of these areas.

Following are the excerpts of the report:

System Safety Program: Safety by Design

System Safety Program established by Waymo, documented practices that would ensure safety in the testing and development of technology. Today, that program is a comprehensive and robust approach called Safety by Design.

Safety by Design means that Waymo considers safety from the ground up and incorporate safety at every system level and every development stage, from design to testing and validation. It is a multi-pronged approach that builds upon best practices from a variety of industries, including aerospace, automotive, and defense (including aspects of MIL-STD-882E and ISO 26262). In line with these practices, each individual component of the self-driving vehicle is tested robustly to ensure that all subsystems perform safely when integrated as a complete self-driving system. This approach also helps validate that the vehicle works safely as a fully self-driving vehicle on the road, and understand how a change or failure in any part of the system—component, subsystem, or otherwise—causes changes throughout the rest of the self-driving system.

Areas Addressed by Waymo’s System Safety Program

• Behavioral Safety
• Functional Safety
• Crash Safety
• Operational Safety
• Non-Collision Safety

How Waymo’s Self-Driving Vehicles Work

Waymo’s fully self-driving system is designed to operate without a human driver, unlike technologies sold in cars today such as adaptive cruise-control or lane-keeping systems which require constant monitoring by the driver. Their system includes the software and hardware that, when integrated into the vehicle, perform all driving functions. In self-driving jargon, Waymo’s self-driving system is designed to perform the entire dynamic driving task within a geographic area and under certain defined conditions, without the need for a human driver. This type of technology falls under SAE International’s definition of a Level 4 automated driving system, as our technology also has the ability to bring a vehicle to a safe stop (i.e. a minimal risk condition) in the event of any system failures. Unlike autonomous systems at lower levels (Level, 1, Level 2, and Level 3), a Level 4 system also has the ability to bring a vehicle to a safe stop (i.e. achieve a minimal risk condition) in the event of any system failures, without any expectation that a human driver take over.

Testing and Validation Methods: Ensuring Our Vehicles Are Capable and Safe

Waymo’s technology undergoes extensive testing—on the road, in closed courses, and in simulation— so that every part of the system is capable, reliable, and safe when operating within its design domain.

Waymo’s self-driving vehicles consist of three primary subsystems that are individually and rigorously tested:

1. The base vehicle, as certified by the OEM
2. Our in-house hardware, including sensors and computers
3. Our self-driving software that makes all the driving decisions

Each of these subsystems is then combined to form a fully integrated self-driving vehicle, which is then further tested and validated.

Interacting Safely with the Public

Waymo’s vehicles are designed to drive themselves, so the user interface focuses on passengers, not drivers. That’s why they’ve developed specific in-car features and user interfaces that help passengers understand what vehicles are doing on the road and let them do things like set a destination, ask the vehicle to pull over, and get in touch with Waymo support staff as needed. Waymo also understands the transportation challenges that exist today, especially around accessibility, and they are working to develop solutions that work for riders of all abilities.

The full report can be found here.

Source: Waymo

Autonomous Driving will End Human Driving Errors and Lead to Safer Roads for Everyone

One of the big promises of artificial intelligence (AI) is driverless future. Nearly 1.3 million people die in road crashes worldwide every year – an average 3,287 deaths a day. Nearly 90 percent of those collisions are caused by human error.

Self-driving technology can help prevent these errors by giving autonomous vehicles the capacity to learn from the collective experience of millions of cars – avoiding the mistakes of others and creating a safer driving environment.

Waymo’s newest vehicles, the self-driving Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans, feature Intel-based technologies for sensor processing, general compute and connectivity, enabling real-time decisions for full autonomy in city conditions.

As Waymo’s self-driving technology becomes smarter and more capable, its high-performance hardware and software will require even more powerful and efficient compute. By working closely with Waymo, Intel can offer Waymo’s fleet of vehicles the advanced processing power required for level 4 and 5 autonomy.

With 3 million miles of real-world driving, Waymo cars with Intel technology inside have already processed more self-driving car miles than any other autonomous fleet on U.S. roads. Intel’s collaboration with Waymo ensures Intel will continue its leading role in helping realize the promise of autonomous driving and a safer, collision-free future.

Source: Intel

Avis Budget Group, Inc. today announced that it has signed an agreement with Waymo, an Alphabet Inc. company, to offer fleet support and maintenance services for Waymo’s self-driving car program at Avis Car Rental and Budget Car Rental locations.

The collaboration is designed to support Waymo’s growing autonomous vehicle (AV) fleet and Waymo’s early rider program, a public trial of its self-driving cars in Phoenix, Arizona. Waymo recently announced that it is adding hundreds of Chrysler Pacifica minivans to build a 600-vehicle fleet. This partnership will allow Avis Budget Group to service Waymo’s growing number of cars on the road, ensuring Waymo’s self-driving vehicles are ready for riders around the clock.

Under the multi-year agreement, Avis Budget Group will enhance selected rental facilities to offer automotive services and secure parking for Waymo’s fleet. The services offered by Avis Budget Group include interior and exterior cleaning, oil changes, tire rotations, and the checking, ordering and installation of automotive parts, as well as other necessary fleet support and maintenance.

“With members of the public using our growing fleet of self-driving cars, our vehicles need standard maintenance and cleaning so they’re ready for our riders at any time of the day or night,” said John Krafcik, chief executive officer, Waymo. “Avis Budget Group is an ideal partner to provide fleet support and maintenance. With thousands of locations around the world, Avis Budget Group can help us bring our technology to more people, in more places.”

“We are excited to partner with Waymo, the self-driving technology leader that is changing the mobility landscape in a profoundly transformative and beneficial manner,” said Larry De Shon, president and chief executive officer, Avis Budget Group. “Not only does this partnership enable us to leverage our current capabilities and assets, but it also allows us to accelerate our knowledge and hands-on experience in an emerging area as Waymo-enabled self-driving cars become available in the marketplace.”

Source: Avis Budget Group

FCA US announced today that Waymo will add 500 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans to expand its self-driving program. FCA previously delivered 100 minivans, modified for self-driving, to Waymo during the second half of 2016. Production of the additional 500 minivans will ramp up beginning next month. Waymo will then outfit these vehicles with its self-driving technology.

Waymo also announced today that it is inviting members of the public to use its fleet of self-driving vehicles for everyday travel. Waymo’s early rider program will give selected Phoenix residents the opportunity to experience the self-driving Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans for the first time.

The self-driving Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans are equipped with Waymo’s hardware suite. The self-driving minivans are also running Waymo’s self-driving software, which has been honed with nearly 3 million miles of on-road testing and billions of miles in simulation.

This collaboration brought engineers from FCA and Waymo together to integrate Waymo’s fully self-driving system into the all-new 2017 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivan, leveraging each company’s individual strengths and resources. The minivan’s electrical, powertrain, chassis and structural systems were all modified to accommodate Waymo’s self-driving technology.

Waymo and FCA co-located a select group of engineers at a facility in southeastern Michigan to accelerate the overall development process. In addition, extensive testing was carried out at FCA’s Chelsea Proving Grounds in Chelsea, Michigan, and Arizona Proving Grounds in Yucca, Arizona, as well as Waymo test sites in California.

Self-driving vehicles have the potential to prevent many of the 1.2 million deaths that occur each year on roads worldwide, 94 percent of which are caused by human error.

Source: FCA

Waymo, the former Google Self-Driving Car project that became a stand-alone Alphabet Inc. unit in December, didn’t have much to say publicly last year when several high-level engineers left and began starting their own automated car companies or joined competitors.

But when it comes to protecting a lead in patented autonomous driving technology built up after more than six years of research, the firm is ready to make a big noise. Waymo on Thursday dropped a bombshell by filing a suit against Uber and its Otto self-driving tech unit in federal court in San Francisco, claiming the ride-hailing giant stole patents and trade secrets.

The Mountain View, California-based company’s claims center on actions by Anthony Levandowski, a long-time member of Google’s driverless car team who left to found Otto in 2016. Uber in August reportedly paid as much as $680 million for the nascent company which focused on designing self-driving systems for commercial trucks.

According to the suit, Levandowski, who runs Uber’s automated vehicle research team, downloaded data while still working for Google related to the company’s laser LiDAR technology, a high-definition sensor that gives self-driving vehicles 360-degree vision. The company learned of this after a supplier to Waymo sent it images of a LiDAR circuit board, presumably from Uber, that resembled its own.

Six weeks before his resignation, Waymo claims that Levandowski “downloaded over 14,000 highly confidential and proprietary design files for Waymo’s various hardware systems, including designs of Waymo’s LiDAR and circuit board,” the company said in a blog post that summarizes actions detailed in the lawsuit and which doesn’t personally name Levandowski as a defendant.

Using a Google-issued laptop, “he downloaded 9.7 GB of Waymo’s highly confidential files and trade secrets, including blueprints, design files and testing documentation. Then he connected an external drive to the laptop. Mr. Levandowski then wiped and reformatted the laptop in an attempt to erase forensic fingerprints,” Waymo said.

Uber, which intends to eventually replace human drivers on its network with low-cost robotic ride services, didn’t have specific responses to Waymo’s claims or the newly filed suit.

“We take the allegations made against Otto and Uber employees seriously and we will review this matter carefully,” the company said in a statement late Thursday. A legal fight between the two complicates a complex relationship that began with early funding for Uber by Google.

Billions of dollars have been invested in automated driving research in the past two years as auto and technology companies scramble for leadership in this emerging space. Google’s years of well-publicized R&D efforts to perfect driverless cars spurred a host of competitors to enter the fray, and in some cases scoop up its experienced computer scientists and artificial intelligence experts.

Waymo has designed all the hardware and software that goes into its self-driving vehicles and intends to supply a ready-to-go system to automakers. It’s already arranged a small-scale program with FCA Corp.’s Chrysler and is in talks to potentially work with Honda Motor Co. as well.

Along with Levandowski, Chris Urmson, a former head of Google’s vehicle program, left the company last year, and apparently has founded Aurora Innovation, an autonomous vehicle tech firm with Sterling Anderson, who previously led Tesla’s Autopilot team. Tesla in January filed a lawsuit in Santa Clara County, Calif., against Anderson and Urmson claiming, among other things, attempts to poach Tesla employees to work for Aurora.

In February, Ford announced plans to invest as much as $1 billion over five years in Argo AI, a startup co-founded by Bryan Salesky, another former Google Self-Driving Car engineer. In 2016 Jiajun Zhu and Dave Ferguson, also left Google to found Nuro.ai, another would-be Waymo competitor.

In the suit, Tesla said, “Autopilot feature that are built into every Tesla vehicle, and continually updated through free over-the-air updates, are widely regarded as the most advanced, safest, and most reliable technology in the autonomous area.”

In its blog, Waymo said other former employees who are now at Otto and Uber also “downloaded additional highly confidential information pertaining to our custom-built LiDAR including supplier lists, manufacturing details and statements of work with highly technical information.”

The actions were part of a plan to “steal Waymo’s trade secrets and intellectual property. Months before the mass download of files, Mr. Levandowski told colleagues that he had plans to “replicate” Waymo’s technology at a competitor.

Uber began demonstrating its commitment to self-driving vehicles with a test program in Pittsburgh last September, allowing users to hail automated cars — with two technicians in the front — to transport them around the city. A similar program in San Francisco turned into a debacle in December when Levandowski refused to apply for a California permit required to operate self-driving cars on public roads. Uber pulled the plug on that effort and shipped its automated Volvo SUVs to Arizona, where they started operating this month, according to Otto co-founder Lior Ron.

Waymo’s suit requests a jury trial and it’s seeking an injunction to stop Uber and Otto from using its trade secrets, as well as unspecified damages and legal fees.

“Our parent company Alphabet has long worked with Uber in many areas, and we didn’t make this decision lightly,” Waymo said. “However, given the overwhelming facts that our technology has been stolen, we have no choice but to defend our investment and development of this unique technology.”

Source: Forbes

Known in some states Safe Autonomous vehicle acts, draft legislation that would only allow vehicle manufacturers to test autonomous vehicle fleets—excluding companies like Uber and Google—is currently being considered in some states.

Legislation began in May in Michigan when a package of bills permitted the testing of autonomous vehicles without a steering wheel or brake pedal. This package, according to Automotive News, included Senate Bill 996, known as the SAVe Act, which was drafted with input from General Motors, and sought to make it so only companies that build vehicles could operate fleets without driving controls. These bills were signed into law in December after language in them was revised to change the definition of “motor vehicle manufacturer” based on input from Uber and Waymo to include companies developing and testing self-driving systems.

However, Tennessee, Georgia, Maryland, and Illinois are reviewing these SAVe bills that contain the original language, which impacts which companies can test vehicles in those states. As a result, technology companies, self-driving vehicle advocacy groups, and even other automakers have expressed concern about SAVe legislation and the potential negative effects of excluding competitive companies.

“It’s not a good idea to close the door on innovators who might come up with a solution and be a good and valuable partner,” said Brad Stertz, director of government affairs for Audi of America in the Auto News article. “Competition is one of great things spurring this revolution since it started.”

While these companies would only be prohibited from testing in five states, it stands to reason that they should be given a level playing field to develop these technologies wherever vehicle manufacturers are allowed to do the same.

Source: Vision Systems

Waymo, the self-driving car company from Google’s parent company Alphabet, showed a large improvement in its vehicle testing in 2016, according to a new report published by the California DMV.

Waymo reported that it had 0.2 disengagements per 1,000 miles driven in 2016. That’s down from 0.8 disengagements per 1,000 miles in 2015.

In the self-driving car world, a “disengagement” is when a human tester has to take over from the automated driving system.

Another promising stat in the report: Waymo’s cars drove more miles in 2016 (635,868) versus 2015 (424,331).

In short, Waymo’s cars needed a lot less help from their human passengers in 2016. The ultimate goal, obviously, is for Waymo’s cars to become fully autonomous.

Companies that are registered to test self-driving cars in California are required to disclose how many disengagements they encounter each year. Only 11 manufacturers, including Honda, BMW, and Ford, are registered. You can read the other disengagement reports here.

Waymo is the newest company under Alphabet’s umbrella. It spun out of X, the so-called “moonshot” lab under Alphabet. X has been researching self-driving cars for the better part of a decade and is finally starting to make it a real business through partnerships with traditional car companies like Chrysler. Waymo is also said to be exploring an Uber-like car service for autonomous vehicles.

Source: Business Insider

Google unveiled its latest self-driving system in a Chrysler Pacifica minivan during a Sunday preview ahead of the Detroit auto show, saying the technology is more reliable and affordable.

The announcement came from John Krafcik, head of Google’s Waymo unit, whose search for partners to develop and install the company’s autonomous driving technology into real cars has so far yielded only an alliance with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and a pending deal with Honda Motor Co.

Headlining a future mobility conference during the show’s media preview, Krafcik said Waymo’s latest set of self-driving hardware and software incorporated a new array of sensors, including an enhanced vision system, improved radar and laser-based lidar, all developed and built in-house.

Krafcik said Waymo had reduced the cost of a single lidar unit by 90 percent, to about $7,500. Among major outside suppliers of this technology, Velodyne Lidar Inc and Quanergy Systems Inc both have said they are developing smaller solid-state lidar units that eventually would cost $200 or less.

Waymo’s existing test fleet of self-driving cars, including some specially equipped Lexus RX450s and Google’s own “Firefly” prototypes, has accumulated nearly 2.5 million miles in less than eight years, mostly on city streets.

Krafcik said Waymo planned to test the first self-driving Pacificas this month on public roads in California and Arizona. He did not say when the system would be ready to install in production vehicles.

Delphi Automotive Plc and Mobileye NV have said they are collaborating on a self-driving system that could be sold to automakers beginning in 2019.

Ford Motor Co, General Motors Co and BMW AG have said they intend to introduce self-driving cars in 2021.

Source: Reuters

Honda R&D Co., Ltd., the R&D subsidiary of Honda Motor Co., Ltd., announced today that it is entering into formal discussions with Waymo, an independent company of Alphabet Inc., to integrate its self-driving technology with Honda vehicles. This technical collaboration between Honda researchers and Waymo’s self-driving technology team would allow both companies to learn about the integration of Waymo’s fully self-driving sensors, software and computing platform into Honda vehicles.

As part of the discussion on technical collaboration, Honda could initially provide Waymo with vehicles modified to accommodate Waymo’s self-driving technology. These vehicles would join Waymo’s existing fleet, which are currently being tested across four U.S. cities.

If both parties agree to enter into a formal agreement, Honda R&D engineers based in Silicon Valley, California and Tochigi, Japan, would work closely with Waymo engineers based in Mountain View, California and Novi, Michigan.

Honda previously announced its intention to put production vehicles with automated driving capabilities on highways sometime around 2020 related to its goal of a collision-free society.  In addition to these on-going efforts, this technical collaboration with Waymo could allow Honda R&D to explore a different technological approach to bring fully self-driving technology to market. These discussions are an initial step that will allow Waymo and Honda R&D to further explore the potential of a broad range of automated driving technologies.

About Honda R&D Co, Ltd.
Honda R&D Co., Ltd. is an independent subsidiary company of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. and serves as Honda’s primary research and development organization for the company’s automobile, motorcycle, power products and aviation products. Based on over half a century of accumulated engineering expertise, Honda R&D seeks to actively lead the way through new technologies and resources to define the future of mobility. Honda R&D is playing a central role in the development of Honda’s automated driving technologies, with responsibility for the entire process from fundamental research to product development. For more information, please visit: http://world.honda.com/RandD/

Source: Honda