Honda, Google start negotiations on self-driving cars

Japanese car manufacturer Honda has begun negotiations with Waymo, a Google subsidiary that builds self-driven vehicles, to collaborate on developing the technology further, the company said on Thursday.

Honda R&D (research and development subsidiary of Honda Motor Co) will integrate sensors and software developed by Waymo into its vehicles, which will join Waymo's fleet currently being tested across four cities in the US, according to the company.

Honda plans to introduce the vehicles with automated driving capabilities on highways around the year 2020 and hopes this technical collaboration will allow it "to explore a different technological approach to bring fully self-driving technology to the market", Efe news reported.

The US collaboration will allow Honda an edge over its competitors Toyota and Nissan who are also developing the same technology.

Waymo, so far known as Google's self-driving car project, announced on December 13 that it would work as an independent company and has already spent years developing this technology that is touted as the future of the industry.

Waymo completed the first fully self-driven car ride in October 2015 on highways and public roads of Austin in the US and since then has covered a distance of 2 million miles of automated rides.

The company is already collaborating with the Fiat Chrysler group for using self-driving technology in 100 Chrysler Pacifica minivans, ready to roll out on US roads in the next few months.

--IANS

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