Waymo to Supply FCA with Level 4 Driver Autonomous Tech for “Full Portfolio”

Whereas two years ago all you could hear was AV this and AV that, it seems like all the efforts and money pumped into the idea sank to a bottomless pit of oblivion.

That, of course, is not the case. Companies are still working on autonomous tech, but it appears they are now moving silently into the background, instead of making a big fuss of things. And if it weren't for an anxious FCA, we probably would still lack any developments from this front.

The American-Italian company was among the first to join in on the AV fun years ago and threw its support behind a company that promised to revolutionize mobility. It's Waymo we're talking about, spun off from Google a while back.

FCA and Waymo have been in bed for a while now, with the carmaker supplying Pacifica minivans to be used as test platforms. Last we heard, Waymo was determined to buy 62,000 minivans for its upcoming fleet – we have no info on what became of those needs.

This week, though, FCA confirmed a new development of the collaboration with Waymo. The company's Driver system will be integrated with the Ram ProMaster light commercial vehicle in the near future, but more importantly "across FCA's full product portfolio."

We're not sure what that means in terms of what cars will get it first and how fast.

"Adding Waymo's commitment to partner with us to deploy its L4 fully autonomous technology across our entire product portfolio, our partnership is setting the pace for the safe and sustainable mobility solutions that will help define the automotive world in the years and decades to come," said in a statement Mike Manley, FCA CEO.

Waymo's Driver is one of the most advanced AV systems out there. It has been tested according to the company through millions of miles on public roads and billions of miles in simulation, but it is yet to reach full maturity.