Honda in talks with Alphabet's Waymo over self-driving car tech

Honda cars will be retrofitted with Waymo's self-driving tech.

Alphabet's self-driving car project is in formal talks with Honda over a possible collaboration between the two companies. The partnership will see Waymo integrate its self-driving platform and sensors into Honda cars, with engineers from both companies working closely together.

In the official announcement, Honda mentioned that it will retorfit a few vehicles to accommodate Waymo's self-driving tech:

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 U.S. cities.

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.

If the deal goes through, Honda will be the second automaker to tie up with Waymo. The company has already partnered with Fiat Chrysler to produce 100 self-driving minivans.