Honda is in talks with Honda to establish a collaboration regarding self-driving tech.
After Google has revealed that they’re stopping the development of their own self-driving car, the company’s division was renamed Waymo, and it is currently interested in collaborating with established automakers so that they can implement their self-driving tech in their cars.
Google’s Waymo and a Honda Motor’s subsidiary responsible for research and development, are currently in talks to form a partnership. The collaboration would likely involve integrating Waymo’s self-driving tech with Honda’s vehicles. More specifically, Waymo will have to install a number of sensors, radars, as well as a computing platform and its software on a number of Honda cars for testing.
Although Honda has its ongoing efforts at developing the required technology for a self-driving car, their partnership with Waymo will allow the company to explore a different approach in bringing the self-driving tech to the market.
Patrick Moorhead, the president and main analyst at Moor insights & Strategy said that these types of collaborations between an established automaker and a tech company investing into self-driving tech are to be expected and makes sense for both companies. Developing a fully autonomous car requires a great deal of resources and effort, a task which can be facilitated by joining the expertise of each company. He also expects that Apple will very likely announce a similar collaboration with another company, by developing only the self-driving tech and not the entire car.
Honda is aiming to release fully self-driving cars for public use by 2020. However, until then, they have said that if a partnership is established with Waymo, then the company’s R&D engineers from both Silicon Valley and Tochigi, Japan will work closely with Waymo developers from Novi, Michigan as well as Mountain View, California.
Additionally, the collaboration will consist with Honda delivering a number of vehicles which can be modified with the self-driving tech from Waymo. These vehicles will then join the company’s existing fleet of test autonomous cars tested around the US. Waymo has already established such a partnership with Fiat Chrysler which has already supplied the company with 100 Chrysler Pacifica Minivan ready for testing.
Neither Google nor Waymo specifically, released any statements on the discussions with Honda.
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