Google not embarrassed to self-drive Fiat Chrysler minivan

Google has announced a partnership with Fiat Chrysler, which will double the size of the company’s autonomous fleet to 200 cars.

Fiat will provide 100 Chrysler Pacifica vans to Google. The vans will be fitted with all of Google’s autonomous technology and will join the other 100 cars in California for road testing.

The two companies claim this is the “most advanced” partnership between Silicon Valley and a traditional automotive company.

“The opportunity to work closely with Fiat engineers will accelerate our efforts to develop a fully self-driving car that will make our roads safer,” said John Krafcik, Google’s head of self-driving cars.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) CEO Sergio Marchionne has been a bit of a pessimist towards Silicon Valley in the past, calling them “disruptive interlopers” and questioning the capability of a company like Google to make a good car.

Google unlikely to get into car-making

We doubt Google will build its own vehicles when driverless cars are permitted on the roads, instead working with a small selection of automotive companies. Fiat is in a powerful position to be the primary manufacturer of autonomous cars that use Google’s technology.

“FCA will design the minivans so it’s easy for us to install our self-driving systems, including the computers that hold our self-driving software and the sensors that enable our software to see what’s on the road around the vehicle,” said Google’s self-driving team.

Toyota was the first automotive company to partner with Google, providing 70 Lexus cars in 2014, but this sounds like a much closer partnership between the two companies.

We’re bound to see more partnerships like this in the next few years, as automotive manufacturers choose between Google’s established self-driving platform and their own in-house system. Ford, General Motors, and Toyota have all been linked in the past to Google, but all three have yet to make any official collaboration announcements.

BMW to launch iNext autonomous car in 2021

BMW has confirmed plans to launch an electric, autonomous car by 2021, named the iNext. Chief executive Harald Krueger revealed the plans during the company’s celebration of 100 years in business.

“We are further expanding the BMW i line-up,” said Krueger. “In just a few weeks, we will offer an i3 with 50 per cent more battery capacity. In 2018, we will launch a BMW i8 Roadster. This will be followed in 2021 by the BMW iNext, our new innovation driver, with autonomous driving, digital connectivity, intelligent lightweight design, a totally new interior and the next generation of electro-mobility.”

Krueger didn’t give any details on the design or performance of the BMW iNext, we suspect a most of the autonomous car is still being worked on.

It is an interesting development however, since only a few automotive manufacturers have confirmed plans to launch autonomous cars. BMW has been one of the quicker car companies to embrace self-driving, with plans to install automatic parking on most cars by 2018.

An interesting part of the comment from Krueger is “the next generation of electro-mobility”, which suggests redefining of “automotive” from the company.

BMW and others considering “Cars-as-a-Service”?

We’ve heard that automotive companies are looking into offering several autonomous cars on a flat rate, so you could use a sporty car to get to work and then an SUV to take the family somewhere special on the weekends.

The cars would wait in a garage for your call and customers would pay monthly for the package. BMW has not mentioned that scenario in the announcement of the iNext, but it is a possibility.

While BMW is one of the first to announce plans to launch an autonomous car, it is not alone in the race. Tesla is starting to implement self-driving systems on highways already, General Motors recently acquired an autonomous car startup for $1 billion, Audi, Ford, Toyota,Mitsubishi, PSA Group, and Fiat Chrysler are working on their own systems or in partnership with Google.