Waymo and Chrysler Expands Partnership to Self-Driving Commercial Vehicles

Autonomous car company Waymo LLC and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles are augmenting their autonomous vehicle partnership to commercial vehicles. As part of the latest development, Fiat Chrysler on Wednesday disclosed that going forward, it will develop fully self-driving vehicles exclusively with Waymo.

Both companies said they will partner to develop self-driving light commercial vehicles for moving goods, starting by integrating Waymo’s self-driving technology into Ram ProMaster vans, which Fiat Chrysler sells globally.

The companies also said that Waymo’s Waymo Via autonomous goods delivery unit will use vehicles co-developed with Fiat Chrysler.

Self-driving vehicle companies and automakers have been reshaping their patterns of investment and engineering to delivery and other commercial uses of autonomous vehicles, trusting that the logistics side of the business will offer a faster route to profits than battling the technical, social and regulatory obstacles to moving people.

Reuters reported that Fiat Chrysler is ending work on autonomous commercial vehicles it began in 2019 with startup Aurora. Aurora is continuing to use Chrysler minivans in its test fleets, and said in a statement that it “looks forward to deploying our self-driving solution on FCA’s passenger and commercial vehicles.”

In a blog post, Waymo and Fiat Chrysler said they will collaborate on “level 4” autonomous driving, a reference to a Society of Automotive Engineers classification that defines such vehicles as capable of driving themselves and taking action on their own if a dangerous situation occurs or the system fails.

Waymo has been working with Fiat Chrysler since 2016 to integrate its self-driving vehicle system, the Waymo Driver, into vehicles such as the Chrysler Pacifica minivan.

Waymo Chief Executive, John Krafcik in a statement said, The expanded partnership with Fiat Chrysler will cover “ride-hailing, commercial delivery, and personal-use vehicles around the world.”

Fiat Chrysler’s chief executive, Mike Manley, said in a statement the automaker intends to deploy Waymo’s technology “across our entire product portfolio.” The companies didn’t say when new, autonomous vehicles will launch.