Waymo and Fiat Chrysler Automotive are extending their four-year partnership to include commercial trucks. On Wednesday, the companies announced a plan to jointly develop an autonomous delivery truck based on FCA’s Ram ProMaster.
Waymo, the autonomous division of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, announced in 2016 that FCA would be its first OEM (original equipment manufacturer) partner. Since then, the two companies have worked together to adapt a fleet of hundreds of Chrysler Pacifica minivans with Waymo’s self-driving hardware and software. Now, the companies will work together on a new project, an autonomous delivery van, serving Waymo’s fledgling delivery service, Waymo Via.
In addition, FCA has chosen Waymo as its “exclusive and strategic technology partner for fully autonomous L4 technology across the entire FCA product portfolio,” the companies announced. In June, Volvo also said it would work exclusively with Waymo as its “global L4 partner”. In addition to FCA and Volvo, Waymo also has pre-existing agreements with Nissan-Renault and Jaguar Land Rover.
GIF: Waymo
“L4” is a reference to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) taxonomy for autonomous vehicles, commonly known as SAE levels, which have become the global standard for defining various aspects of autonomous driving technology. Tier 4 or L4 vehicles can operate without a human driver behind the wheel, but only within a specific geographic location and under certain conditions, such as good weather. Waymo has some Tier 4 vehicles in operation outside of Phoenix, Arizona.
Waymo has high ambitions for its commercial delivery program. In addition to designing autonomous Ram ProMaster trucks with FCA, the company also has a small fleet of Class 8 semi trucks that are currently being tested on the roads of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
The coronavirus pandemic has changed the calculation for many companies working in autonomous vehicles, especially those that bet that robotaxis (autonomous transport vehicles in dense urban areas) would be the best way to recover the high costs of technology development. The virus has forced almost all companies currently testing vehicles on public roads to land their fleets. Autonomous trucks and delivery vans are gaining strength as a more viable way to make money in the short term, as the US continues to fight to control the virus.
Waymo discontinued its commercial Waymo One passenger transportation service in suburban Phoenix in March. Since then, the company has resumed some testing, using its Chrysler Pacifica minivans to make deliveries to the Bay Area.
