FCA Partners With Waymo to Deliver Fleet of Self-Driving Pacifica Hybrids

We’ve already told you about the advanced features of the 2018 Chrysler Pacifica, which comes available as the first-ever plug-in hybrid minivan with a total system output of 260 hp and the ability to drive 33 miles on electric power alone. It’s hard to imagine a way Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) can top those stats, but a bit of recent news has the Hall Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM Virginia Beach team really impressed. FCA just announced an expansion of its partnership with Waymo to make the Pacifica Hybrid fully autonomous.

More About Waymo and FCA

Waymo started out in 2009 as Google’s self-driving car project. Waymo describes itself as "a self-driving tech company with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to move around." The company is already testing driverless ride services in several cities and plans to make the service available to the public in Phoenix, Arizona by the end of the year. This goal of making transportation safer and easier fits perfectly with the vision at FCA (in addition to making driving comfortable and efficient, of course).

FCA is committed to bringing self-driving technology to our customers in a manner that is safe, efficient and realistic. Strategic partnerships, such as the one we have with Waymo, will help to drive innovative technology to the forefront.

—Sergio Marchionne, Chief Executive Officer, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V.

The partnership between FCA and Waymo already began in 2016 by adapting the self-driving technology to the Pacifica platform, followed by six million miles of road testing in 25 cities to capture real-time data and ensure passenger safety. The self-driving technology has been successfully tested and proven on the roads, and now it's ready for the public. Later this year, FCA will deliver an additional 62,000 self-driving Pacifica Hybrid models to provide on-demand ride services for Waymo customers in markets around the world.

So long as everything goes as planned, you should be able to use the Waymo app on your smartphone to order a ride from a driverless Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid by 2019. The partnership also includes plans to make self-driving Pacifica Hybrid models available for retail sales to the public soon after. Today, however, you can explore the many new FCA models already available to drive off the lot and into the future. Visit our showroom at 3152 Virginia Beach Blvd, Virginia Beach, VA 23452 or contact us online to schedule a test drive.

Image Credit: FCA