launcht The autonomous revolution is on and with the race to rule the new frontier of Self Driving cars, Google is chalking out various strategies to be on the forefront. Google’s Self Driving project Waymo led by auto industry veteran John Krafcik has forged partnerships with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and is in talks with Honda Motor Co. Ltd. Waymo now has the world’s largest fleet of self-driving cars, with over three million miles of testing on public roads so far.
While competitors may be thinking of specific applications for their own self-driving technologies, Waymo is looking at developing theirs for a broad range of uses like; ride-hailing, freight delivery and public transport. A major astounding factor being that, Waymo’s self-driving vehicles racked up 635,898 miles of usage on California’s public roads during the 12 months ending November 30, 2016, which is way ahead of any other player in the segment.
With this, Mr. Krafcik is also looking to change the mindset of the auto industry from units sold to miles driven. Widespread adoption of self-driving technology may be a way to get consumers to spend per mile driven, especially if ride-sharing and vehicle-sharing arrangements explode in popularity.
