While most companies are still in the development phase with their self-driving vehicles and haven't gotten further than a prototype, the startup Waymo, recently owned by Google, has teamed up with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to unveil the Pacifica, the first autonomous vehicle designed for commercial sales. In contrast to Tesla vehicles, they allow fully and not only partially autonomous driving. They will go on sale this month.
Waymo, which is owned by the company Google, is together with the company Fiat Chrysler Automobiles presented a minivan Chrysler Pacifica, equipped with technology that enables automatic driving. The existing Pacific was modified drive system, chassis and electronics. The first self-driving vehicle for commercial use will still be available to customers January 2017.
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Both hardware and software were fully developed by Waymo. They enable autonomous driving laser and radar sensors, navigation system and cameras. Of course, it cannot be done without artificial intelligence. It makes sense of the collected data. The first examples will hit the roads in the US state Arizona (California, USA). The price is not yet known, but we can hope that it will be much lower than the competition.
Namely, Google managed to reduce the prices of components that enable autonomous driving by approx 90 percent. And why did they choose a minivan? Google believes that there will be self-driving vehicles competed with public transport and not with private cars.
Gallery - Pacifica fully autonomous vehicle:
More information:
waymo.com
