Skip to main content

Honda and Waymo in discussions on self-driving technology

Honda R&D the R&D subsidiary of Honda Motor is entering into formal discussions with Alphabet’s Waymo, with a view to integrating its self-driving technology with Honda vehicles. This technical collaboration between Honda researchers and Waymo's self-driving technology team would allow both companies to learn about the integration of Waymo's fully self-driving sensors, software and computing platform into Honda vehicles. As part of the discussion on technical collaboration, Honda could initially prov
December 22, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
1683 Honda R&D the R&D subsidiary of Honda Motor is entering into formal discussions with Alphabet’s Waymo, with a view to integrating its self-driving technology with Honda vehicles.

This technical collaboration between Honda researchers and Waymo's self-driving technology team would allow both companies to learn about the integration of Waymo's fully self-driving sensors, software and computing platform into Honda vehicles.

As part of the discussion on technical collaboration, Honda could initially provide Waymo with vehicles modified to accommodate Waymo's self-driving technology. These vehicles would join Waymo's existing fleet, which are currently being tested across four US cities.

If both parties agree to enter into a formal agreement, Honda R&D engineers based in Silicon Valley, California and Tochigi, Japan, would work closely with Waymo engineers based in Mountain View, California and Novi, Michigan.

Honda previously announced its intention to put production vehicles with automated driving capabilities on highways sometime around 2020 related to its goal of a collision-free society.  In addition to these on-going efforts, this technical collaboration with Waymo could allow Honda R&D to explore a different technological approach to bring fully self-driving technology to market. These discussions are an initial step that will allow Waymo and Honda R&D to further explore the potential of a broad range of automated driving technologies.

Related Content

  • September 16, 2016
    Would self-driving vehicles increase occupant productivity?
    New research by Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle of the University of Michigan Sustainable Worldwide Transportation indicates that currently, in the US the average occupant of a light-duty vehicle spends about an hour a day travelling—time that could potentially be put to more productive use. Indeed, increased productivity is one of the expected benefits of self-driving vehicles.
  • August 19, 2014
    Continental opens ITS facility in Silicon Valley
    Continental is putting together an international team of innovators from the IT and automotive industries who will focus on intelligent transportation systems (ITS) to form a new business unit, called Continental Intelligent Transportation Systems. The business will be headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, USA and headed by Seval Oz, an expert in vehicle networking and automation. She previously worked on Google's self-driving car project. Continental sees the new business as an example of its st
  • October 22, 2014
    Bespoke ITS is helping to reduced collisions on America’s rural roads
    David Crawford cherrypicks conference and award highlights Almost 30% of all US citizens live in rural areas or very small communities, and 34 of the 50 states exceed this level in their own populations, with the proportions rising as high as 85%. And although rural routes carry only 35% of all traffic, the accidents that occur on them account for some 54% of all US road traffic accident deaths.
  • February 2, 2012
    US IntelliDrive cooperative infrastructure programme
    The 'rebranding' of the US's Vehicle-Infrastructure Integration programme as IntelliDrive marks an effort to make the whole undertaking more accessible both in terms of nomenclature and technology. Shelley Row, director of the ITS Joint Program Office within USDOT's Research and Innovative Technology Administration, talks about the changes