Honda and Waymo discuss autonomous car collaboration

Honda and Google subsidiary Waymo are in talks about a collaboration. The Japanese car manufacturer has plans to bring cars on the market around 2020 that can drive autonomously on highways and Waymo’s technology can help with that.

Both companies emphasize to Bloomberg that the talks are about a collaboration in the field of ‘autonomous driving technology research’. There is no immediate talk of a Honda car coming onto the market with Waymo technology. That is probably the ultimate goal, if the talks work out well, Honda will deliver a modified car, which will be equipped with hardware and software for autonomous driving by Google subsidiary Waymo.

Waymo already has a similar deal with Fiat Chrysler. On Monday, the companies showed the result. One hundred Pacifica minivans have been equipped with a system that enables autonomous driving and will hit the road for test drives early next year.

According to Bloomberg, General Motors and Ford were also interested in a deal with Google about the technology last year, but those talks came to nothing. The talks reinforce the earlier rumors that the Google subsidiary does not want to market a car itself, but will have its technology used by well-known car brands.

Last week it was announced that the Google division that is working on an autonomous car has been spun off and is housed in the new subsidiary Waymo, under the care of Alphabet. Google started developing under the banner of Google X in 2009 for experimental projects.

Chrysler Pacifica with Waymo technology for autonomous driving