testsetset
Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Google parent company Alphabet, has announced a partnership with Jaguar Land Rover to engineer what it’s touting as “the world’s first premium electric fully self-driving vehicle,” according to a Waymo blog post.
U.K.-based Jaguar Land Rover unveiled its first pure electric vehicle (EV), the I-Pace, back in 2016, though the vehicle’s not scheduled to go to market until later this year. Now Waymo has committed to developing 20,000 autonomous versions of the I-Pace over the next few years.
Above: Waymo: Jaguar I-PACE
Self-driving vehicles hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons last week after an Uber car fatally collided with a pedestrian, leading Arizona to suspend Uber’s self-driving vehicle permit across the state. This incident means there will likely be much more scrutiny of self-driving cars across many states.
Waymo has been testing autonomous cars in the wild for some time and has already racked up more than 5 million autonomous miles. It has also revealed plans for a self-driving ride-hailing service, unveiled a self-driving minivan, and earlier this month announced it was piloting self-driving cargo trucks for Google’s Atlanta datacenters. Adding a fully electric vehicle to its autonomous vehicle lineup seems like a logical next step, considering it’s far and away the prevailing trend across the automobile industry.
June 5th: The AI Audit in NYC
Join us next week in NYC to engage with top executive leaders, delving into strategies for auditing AI models to ensure fairness, optimal performance, and ethical compliance across diverse organizations. Secure your attendance for this exclusive invite-only event.
“Imagine a world where you can take a self-driving minivan to the baseball game with family, and a self-driving I-PACE home after a night out — in both cases, a car perfectly suited for your needs. That’s the world we’re building,” the company said.
Waymo said that it plans to begin integrating the self-driving I-Pace into its fleet later this year.
