Honda joins with Google on self-driving car project
HONDA is in talks with Google’s parent company, Alphabet, about a collaborative self-driving vehicles project.
Honda have joined forces with Waymo, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet
A prospective deal between Honda and Alphabet’s driverless unit Waymo is being discussed currently.
The deal could see Waymo’s self-driving technology integrated into Honda’s vehicles.
This comes after reports announced that Google were ditching its self-driving car project.
It is thought that the search-engine giants will be moving away from autonomous vehicles.
Google have been testing autonomous cars since 2009 and have been at the forefront of developments, not without controversies though.
This technical collaboration between Honda researchers and Waymo will allow both companies to learn about the integration of fully self-driving sensors, software and computer into Honda vehicles.
As part of the discussion, Honda could initially provide Waymo with vehicles modified to accommodate Waymo’s self-driving technology.
These newly adapted vehicles would join Waymo’s fleet, which are currently being tested across four U.S. cities.
Waymo is Alphabet's self-driving vehicle sector
The deal could see Waymo’s self-driving technology integrated into Honda’s vehicles
The development of these collaborative cars would take place with Honda R&D engineers in in Silicon Valley, California and Tochigi, Japan.
Honda previously announced its intention to put production vehicles with automated driving capabilities on highways sometime around 2020.
It is thought that the reason car companies are pairing with tech firms is to address the high cost of developing reliable automation software on their own.