Alphabet Inc’s self-driving car unit, Waymo, has been striking all the right notes in the realm of autonomous vehicles ever since its inception. It has recently emerged that hardware giant Intel has been a key ally in Waymo’s pursuit of making driverless vehicles a reality. In a statement issued on Monday, Intel revealed its collaboration with Waymo for providing crucial computing know-how for latter’s Level 4 and 5 vehicles, built to drive in any given condition.
A Collaboration Less Known
It has also emerged that the company’s Chrysler Pacifica minivans, which are already operational in California and Arizona, feature Intel-powered technology for a range of functions, including sensor-date processing and connectivity. This can only mean that Waymo has been working in close collaboration with Intel all along, without any public disclosure about the partnership.
The two companies have, however, now not only shed light on their years-old partnership but also hinted that more collaborative association in the future to be able to produce vehicles capable of driving in any sort of road condition without the need for human intervention.
Talking about the partnership, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich wrote a post on the company blog that read: “Given the pace at which autonomous driving is coming to life, I fully expect my children’s children will never have to drive a car. That’s an astounding thought: Something almost 90 percent of Americans do every day will end within a generation. With so much life-saving potential, it’s a rapid transformation that Intel is excited to be at the forefront of along with other industry leaders like Waymo.”
Waymo, for its part, gave a statement to the media saying that working in close coordination with Intel would help the company to carefully choose components best suited for powering its self-driving technology, making it fully autonomous. The coming together of two tech giants is good news for the self-driving tech space. For one, it’ll help Waymo to actualize its plans of building all of its computing technology and sensors in-house by integrating the leading chipmaker’s processors with its platform. And second, teaming up with the makers of one of the most advanced autonomous systems in the world today will fortify Intel’s position as a front-runner in the self-driving auto space.
One in a Long List of Partnerships
The tie-up is not a first for either Intel or Waymo in the self-driving space. In March 2016, Intel announced its decision to acquire Israel-based auto visual firm Mobileye for $15.3 billion. The deal has closed this June, leading the chipmaker to resort to aggressive positioning in the emerging self-driving market, which as per chipmaker’s own predictions, is likely to be worth more than $7 trillion. More recently, it revealed its plans for building a fleet of fully autonomous self-driving vehicles to be tested in Europe, US, and Israel. The first vehicle from this line-up is expected to be rolled out by the end of this year, with an eye of scaling up operation to build a fleet of over 100 such self-driving vehicles.
Waymo too has to build a string of partnerships of its own. The company struck a deal with rental giant Avis this June for better management of its expanding fleet of self-driving minivans. Waymo also tied up with ride-sharing service Lyft on self-driving pilots and products.
