Waymo, Toyota partner to bring autonomous technology to personal vehicles

Alphabet-Swned Waymo and Toyota On Tuesday he announced a preliminary association to explore Robotaxi technology to personal property vehicles.

“Companies will explore how to take advantage of Waymo’s autonomous technology and Toyota vehicle experience to improve next -generation personal property vehicles,” the two companies announced.

Companies said their goal is to use the association to develop driver assistance and autonomous vehicle technologies for personal vehicles. Toyota is the world bigger Manufacturer of car for sales.

Waymo’s co-cement, Tekedra Mawakana, said the strategic association could also result in the Google owned company that incorporates Toyota’s “vehicles in our transport fleet.”

The Toyota Tie-Up is the last automotive association for Waymo.

The Autonomous Company has previously worked with car manufacturers such as Jaguar Land Rover, the predecessor of Stellantis Fiat Chrysler, Daimler Trucks, Mercedes-Benz Daimler’s father, Hyundai Motor and China’s’s’s Geely. The associations, many of which promoted long -term links, resulted in cars that produce modified vehicles for the tests or for Waymo to be used in their fleets.

The association with Toyota will not affect Waymo plans to display Hyundai and Geely vehicles through the Waymo One transport service in the future, a company spokesman owned by the alphabet told CNBC.

Waymo now serves 250,000 trips paid per week, compared to 200,000 in February, before Waymo opened in Austin and expanded in the San Francisco Bay Area In March. Waymo is already executing its commercial non -driver transport services in the regions of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin.

Alphabet’s CEO, Like Pichai, said in First quarter earnings Last week, that Waymo has not completely defined its long -term business model, and there is a “future optionality around personal property” of vehicles equipped with Waymo’s autonomous driving technology.

Waymo and Toyota are not the only companies that focus on autonomous personal property vehicles. When GM announced in December That he was abandoning his Robotaxi cruise business, the company said it would focus on the development of autonomous systems for use in personal vehicles.

Toyota previously invested and associated with TeslaElon Musk’s car manufacturer, which now aims to compete with Waymo in Tech without driver. Toyota sold participation in the EV manufacturer in June 2017.

Tesla, once seen as a pioneer in autonomous technology, still does not produce cars that are safe to use without a human driver, ready to direct or stop at any time.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, criticized Waymo in a recent earnings that states that robotaxis is too expensive for mass production. Musk also promised that Tesla “will sell totally autonomous trips in June in Austin”, using model vehicles and with a new “non -supervised” version of the “complete self -control” or FSD systems of the company installed.

– CNBC reporter Michael Wayland contributed to this report.

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