2023 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 15:44
The majority of car manufacturers rely on their own development work for autonomous driving. Each of the big players wants to be a pioneer in the industry's future market. Fiat Chrysler is taking a different approach - and is using technology from Google for its vehicles.
Fiat Chrysler will be the first major automaker to try Google's technology for self-driving vehicles. As a first step, the companies will jointly install Google technology in around 100 hybrid cars based on the Chrysler "Pacifica" minivan. Google will integrate the necessary sensors and computers, and Chrysler engineers will adapt the vehicles to them, it said on Tuesday.
Google has long been looking for partners from the automotive industry who are willing to cooperate and who could use the technology it has developed over the past seven years for self-driving vehicles. Talks with General Motors failed last year because of differences over data usage, reported the financial service Bloomberg. At the turn of the year there was speculation about a cooperation with Ford, but instead the group announced the increased development of its own technology.
Google with massive advances
While no partner seemed in sight, Google managers always emphasized that the Internet company did not want to become a car manufacturer itself, and were confident that there would be partnerships in the end. Fiat Chrysler has been considered a likely Google partner for some time because the company is not as advanced as other big players in developing its own technology for autonomous driving.
In the past few years, Google had made massive strides in collecting and evaluating data about the surroundings in the car and allowing the software to control the vehicle on this basis. According to some industry experts, however, many car manufacturers are hesitant to cooperate with Google: Their concern is that they will lose data that are indispensable for future business models and thus lose their leadership role to the Internet company. Google denies such tensions. The boss of Fiat Chrysler, Sergio Marchionne, had repeatedly shown himself to be more open than other captains of the branch for cooperation with technology companies like Apple and Google.
The automotive business is changing tremendously with the networking of vehicles and the advance of software and online services. In addition, according to media reports, Apple is also working on its own car, which is supposed to be ready by 2020. Marchionne's argument is that classic car manufacturers will not be able to do without cooperation with Internet companies. Other manufacturers try to expand their IT skills in-house as much as possible.
Increase security
Google initially installed its autonomous driving technology on its own only in finished vehicles from other manufacturers such as Toyota. Meanwhile, there is also a fleet of small electric two-seaters on the road developed by Google. In the future, the group wants to do without traditional controls such as steering wheel or pedals and leave control to the computer alone.
On this basis, a new automated transport system for cities could be developed. The company emphasizes that self-driving cars would improve safety on the roads and drastically reduce the number of road deaths. At the same time, experts expect that manufacturers will then sell fewer cars because significantly more vehicles are shared. The Google parent Alphabet gave the car project last year with the former Hyundai manager John Krafcik a boss with the title "Chief Executive Officer", which is common in independent companies.
The self-driving "Pacifica" minivans are to be built by a joint team at a location in the southwest of the state of Michigan, the companies announced on Tuesday. Before they come on public roads, they should be tested this year on Google's private test site in California. According to the "Wall Street Journal", the partners definitely want to have ready-to-use prototypes for the Detroit auto show in January. (dpa)
