It seems that Alphabet’s Waymo is looking to build up a pretty sizable fleet of self-driving cars because in an announcement by carmaker Fiat Chrysler, both companies have reached a deal which will see Waymo buy “thousands” of Chrysler Pacifica minivans which presumably will be turned into self-driving vehicles.Neither Waymo nor Fiat Chrysler would disclose the specifics of the deal, but as The Verge points out, a 2018 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivan is priced at around $40,000, which means that the “thousands” that Waymo bought would result in a deal that could cost as much as $40 million, although presumably this deal also means that there is a chance Waymo could have gotten the cars at a lower price.
At the moment Waymo is using the Chrysler Pacificas and have converted about 600 of them into self-driving vehicles which are used in the company’s Early Rider program in Arizona (a self-driving taxi kind of program). It is unclear what Waymo plans to do with the thousands of minivans, but we wouldn’t be surprised if they were to launch their own fleet of self-driving taxis in the near future.
According to Fiat Chrysler’s CEO Sergio Marchionne, “In order to move quickly and efficiently in autonomy, it is essential to partner with like-minded technology leaders. Our partnership with Waymo continues to grow and strengthen; this represents the latest sign of our commitment to this technology.”
Filed in . Read more about Fiat, Self-Driving Cars and Waymo.