[dpkbehera]

Google is said to be in talks with automaker Ford Motor Co to help build the Internet search company's autonomous cars, Automotive News reported, citing a person with knowledge of the project.
The contract manufacturing deal, if finalized, is expected to come during the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas during the first week of January, Automotive News said.
A Google spokesman told Automotive News that the company would not comment on speculation, although Google officials confirmed that the company is talking to automakers.
Earlier this year, Google began discussions with most of the world's top automakers and assembled a team of traditional and nontraditional suppliers to speed efforts to bring self-driving cars to the market by 2020.
In June, Google began testing tiny, bubble-shaped self-driving prototype vehicles of its own design on public roads around Mountain View. The company has also started testing self-driving prototypes in Austin.
Google is expected to make its self-driving cars unit, which will offer rides for hire, a stand-alone business under its parent company, Alphabet Inc, next year, Bloomberg reported earlier.

Ford, although lagging behind most competitors, ramped up its pace to develop self-driving cars earlier this year and said it would expand advanced safety technology, including automatic braking, enabling hands-free operation of cars under certain conditions by automating such basic functions as steering, braking and throttle.
This was to be included across its global lineup over the next five years.
Reuters could not independently reach Ford Motor and Google for comment outside regular U.S. business hours.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...?section=india

[GTO]

Good article on the same from AutoNews.

Link to full article.

In the mad rush to autonomous vehicles, Ford could leapfrog the competition by doing a deal with Google to build a fleet of self-driving cars to the tech giant's specifications.

The big benefit? Instead of adding Google's electronics to an existing car, Ford engineers likely would create a purpose-built vehicle -- and learn much in the process.

The car would be developed from the wheels up to seamlessly package the complex electronics, lidar, radar and camera sensing and computer systems needed to guide a vehicle safely down the road. In other words, it would look like a normal car, not like Google's experimental "bubble cars."

[darklord]

Fiat Chrysler, Google in partnership talks

Fiat Chrysler and Google's self-driving car project are in advanced talks to form a technical partnership.

The talks were confirmed last week by a person familiar with them but who asked not to be named because the discussions are private.

http://www.news.com.au/finance/busin...06f320b6a5f013