Fiat Chrysler, Google team up for self-driving minivans
It might not be the merger the company needs, but it's definitely an interesting development.
Update, 4:24 p.m. Eastern: Both Chrysler and Google have confirmed the partnership. The story and headline have been updated to reflect that.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has been looking for merger opportunities to better streamline its costs while the company looks to new and interesting developments in the auto industry. While the FCA hasn't exactly found a partner with which to merge, it's making one hell of an intriguing business move by teaming up with Google.
Fiat Chrysler and Google intend to bring self-driving technology to the all-new Chrysler Pacifica minivan, which was unveiled this past winter. This is the first time Google's worked directly with an automaker and applied its self-driving hardware and software to a street-legal passenger vehicle.
Don't expect to buy a self-driving minivan soon, though. This partnership is to help both automakers continue research on self-driving vehicles, and only 100 vehicles will be equipped with Google's systems. Both FCA and Google will bring engineers to southeastern Michigan (i.e. the greater Detroit area) to work on design, testing and manufacturing.
Before any Google-kissed Pacifica touches the road, it will undergo testing at Google's private test track in California. If everything checks out, public-road operation will commence.
FCA could use a strong autonomous backbone to help boost sales outside the truck market, where the company is currently printing most of its money. The partnership would benefit Google, as well. Building a car isn't exactly an exercise for the frugal, and while Google has plenty of cash to burn, offloading the whole "building a proper car" thing onto a company with experience in that field is a great idea to get its systems into cars quickly.
Bloomberg notes that Google and GM tried to partner up earlier, but data ownership sent the two parties moving in different directions. It appears that isn't a problem with FCA and Google.
