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Stellantis , the automaker that own 14 brands , including Chrysler , Jeep and Ram , and autonomous vehicle technology caller Waymo are not only still working together , the companies are change the partnership , CEO Carlos Tavares told TechCrunch in a late interview .
This “ deepen ” partnership will concentre on commercial ego - drive Ram delivery vans , a target that wasfirst announced in 2020and quickly faded from public view . Discussions on this “ improved ” hatful have focused , in part , on a crux around driverless obstetrical delivery : How does the software system get from the fomite to the customer ?
“ When you reach out the finish , how do you take the tract out of the avant-garde ? ” Tavares said in a wide - array interview . “ This has been a stop of word that does n’t seem easy to solve and we are now upgrading our collaboration deal with them to take that into consideration . ”
“ At the same metre , we understand their penury and there are a lot of things that we can do for them in footing of technology , ” he said , summate it is too soon to share details . “ But I would say that the partnership with Waymo is generate deeper . And I think , more exciting . ”
Tavares played coy on the of import what , where and when detail . But he did append that he expect to be able to share more “ possibly by summer . ”
A Waymo interpreter support that the company continues to look at room to deepen its kinship with Stellantis , but did n’t portion out any other details or if progress had been made .
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Even if the two companies do cement a blanket deal , there is still the very genuine challenge of executing it .
Waymo , which is owned by Google parent - company Alphabet , presently does n’t control a commercial-grade delivery service using its ego - drive vehicle . Last summer , itshuttered its self - driving motortruck program , Waymo Via , to put all of its resources into scale the robotaxi service .
In May 2023 , Waymo and Uber agreed to amultiyear strategic partnershipto allow Uber substance abuser to hail a driverless fomite via the app in Phoenix . That bargain did include a next plan to include delivery via Uber Eats , but as of today , it has not launched , consort to a Waymo interpreter .
The two company have been pardner since 2016 when a hatful was strike to supply Waymo withthousands of custom Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivansthat would become the first driverless vehicles to establish .
Under the wad , Fiat Chrysler — now know as Stellantis — would handle the manufacture and allow for Waymo with minivans that built in redundancy designed for self-reliant driving .
Waymo never get close to the 62,000 - minivan order it concord to in 2018 as part of an expanded partnership with Fiat Chrysler . Hundreds , not 1000 , of minivans were delivered to Waymo . But the minivan did become a critical part of its commercialization plan and over its lifespan the fleet provided decade of one thousand of rides to the public , harmonize to the company . ( Waymo has never revealed detailed figures of its minivan fleet beyond that its full global fleet is somewhere around 700 vehicles . )
Waymo ended theChrysler Pacifica programin May 2023 . Today , its robotaxi service uses all - galvanizing Jaguar I - Pace vehicle .
