Google's newly renamed self-driving car project, Waymo, is preparing to test autonomous-drive minivans after taking delivery of 100 modified Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans.
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The largest involves 634,000 Odyssey minivans for model year 2011 to 2016, and a smaller one affects about 7,600 of the 2016 model year Odyssey minivans.
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Through September, FCA's three minivans, the Chrysler Pacifica, Dodge Caravan and the discontinued Chrysler Town & Country, accounted for 45 percent of about 440,000 minivans sold in the U.S. market.
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Waymo's new autonomous minivans Meanwhile Alphabet's Waymo has some new self-driving cars in its own fleet – Chrysler Pacifica minivans created in tandem with FCA over the course of six months.
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Certainly not hybrids or minivans — Toyota owns those markets.
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The minivans still smell new, or at least recently cleaned.
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That brings the company's total fleet of minivans to 600.
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Now its altered Chrysler Pacifica minivans shuttle real passengers in Arizona.
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And, of course, the company's minivans are built by Fiat Chrysler.
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Avis will store Waymo-owned Chrysler Pacifica minivans in Phoenix, Ariz.
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Now, the companies are working on 500 more self-driving minivans.
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The cases were transferred to silver minivans waiting on the runway.
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The designation includes pickups, sport-utility vehicles, minivans and delivery vans.
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People scrambled to work in dilapidated taxi minivans from the suburbs.
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Families pulled their minivans over and ran out to greet him.
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Three-row SUVs are, on one level, an alternative to minivans.
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Waymo already uses 600 of the minivans to test its driverless software.
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So we could be talking 2,000 new self-driving minivans, or 50,000.
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After quietly testing its fleet of self-driving minivans in Phoenix, Ariz.
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It currently retrofits Chrysler Pacifica minivans to use in its robotaxi fleet.
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That's why high-end minivans have offered rear-seat entertainment for decades.
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Google just figured out how to make minivans relevant: Make them autonomous.
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They arrived to Clinton's Manchester rally on Monday in 10 white minivans.
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Waymo has 600 self-driving Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans on the road.
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Waymo is currently using hybrid minivans built by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV .
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People who switched to minivans did not switch back to station wagons.
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Here, in the Land of Minivans and SUVs, they underwent more changes.
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About 800,000 of the affected minivans were sold in the United States.
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And unlike uncovered pickup beds, minivans keep those items secure and dry.
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But minivans aren't just for lugging around hobby supplies and carrying kids.
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Small sport utility vehicles, minivans and pickup trucks weigh about 228,211 pounds.
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The program will begin with mapping conducted by Waymo's Chrysler Pacifica minivans.
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Fiat Chrysler has built a new experimental fleet of minivans for Waymo.
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Buyers gravitate to three-row crossovers to avoid the stigma of minivans.
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The iconic Odyssey is the first of two minivans on the list.
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Was what she was saying about minivans and their doors even true?
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Elizabeth Lee, 51, said she saw minivans drop off women with suitcases.
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The two companies announced a partnership to develop self-driving minivans in May.
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Waymo also has a deal with FCA for up to 62,000 modified minivans.
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It will take more than a few flashy minivans before we get there.
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Avis will retrofit select facilities in Phoenix to house the minivans, Bloomberg reported.
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Waymo's Chrysler Pacifica minivans currently ply a 100-square-mile territory around Phoenix.
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Deals on gas and tiresSpeaking of minivans, they take a lot of gas.
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These are not minivans or full-size cars but six-passenger golf carts.
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Actors so convincing as violent psychos go home to minivans and soccer lessons.
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Minivans and aging Volvos are packed with violins and well-worn soccer gear.
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Soon, rival carmakers launched their own minivans, such as the Chevrolet Astro and ...
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Filed on Wednesday, the lawsuit said Honda has failed to recall the minivans or warn customers of the problem, which can cause unexpected jerking when minivans accelerate, keep them from accelerating properly or cause them to surge while being driven.
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Honda is recalling 254,000 Odyssey minivans because the back seats might not latch properly.
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That said, Waymo has been stingy about giving rides in its self-driving minivans.
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Google and Fiat/Chrysler have made a deal to make 100 self-driving minivans.
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Fiat-Chrysler has been using 100 minivans to test autonomous technology supplied by Waymo.
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The deal will focus on self-driving minivans to be used as test vehicles.
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In May, Waymo announced a deal with Fiat Chrysler for an additional 62,000 minivans.
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Google won't say when it plans on deploying the minivans, or in what capacity.
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Its minivans are an important source of profit, with its Jeeps and Ram trucks.
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It does have a strong business in minivans, but not commercial vans or pickups.
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Many minivans can haul full sheets of plywood, or maybe an ice-fishing house.
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The company also started testing empty self-driving minivans on public streets that year.
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Currently, about 400 preapproved early users are getting rides in self-driving Waymo minivans.
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Google, for example, recently announced plans to adapt 100 Chrysler minivans for autonomous driving.
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The plant produces all versions of the Chrysler Pacifica and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans.
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Waymo says it's testing self-driving trucks and minivans in Texas and New Mexico.
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They were long ago eclipsed by sales of minivans and, later, sport utility vehicles.
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The companies said the automaker would start delivering "thousands" of minivans in late 2018.
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Weeks later, I'm in one of the company's driverless minivans going the wrong way.
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Waymo has finalized an order for thousands of self-driving Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans.
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Hailing one of Waymo's self-driving minivans is about to get a little easier.
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At its peak in 2000, automakers sold nearly 1.4 million minivans to American families.
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But minivans can only carry so many Google engineers between San Francisco and Mountain View.
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Last week, Google struck a deal with Fiat Chrysler to build 100 self-driving minivans.
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Waymo is also still testing its self-driving minivans on Michigan's snowy streets of Detroit.
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Waymo began testing self-driving Chrysler Pacifica Minivans in Phoenix suburbs, notably Chandler, in 2016.
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The size of Waymo's fleet of self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans just got radically bigger.
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The company currently has over 83 self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans operating on public roads.
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"Other than pickup trucks and minivans, the U.S. market doesn't get special treatment," Sullivan said.
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Waymo currently tests its self-driving system on Chrysler Pacifica minivans built by Fiat Chrysler.
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Its Chrysler Pacifica minivans were just too timid to make it through the oncoming traffic.
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The company operates a facility in Detroit to retrofit Chrysler minivans and Jaguar iPace SUVs.
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INTERNET TEST Waymo's Chrysler Pacifica minivans currently ply a 100-square-mile territory around Phoenix.
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Others, however, started driving trucks, and new categories of vehicles were born: SUVs and minivans.
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The Waymo fleet features Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans modified with Waymo's sensors and technology. Gov.
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Should minivans with car seats get special parking places akin to those for disabled people?
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Sales of cars, minivans and sport utility vehicles jumped 8 percent last year from 2014.
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Waymo's self-driving Pacifica minivans recently got a dedicated testing day with the Chandler, Ariz.
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Waymo is currently expanding its fleet of Chrysler Pacifica minivans from 100 vehicles to 600.
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The company expects to begin buying Pacifica minivans for its ride service later this year.
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Minivans might not be the hottest thing on the road, but maturity is sexy, too.
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It's not just people who get to experience self-driving minivans in the Phoenix area.
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Soon, Waymo's self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans will be moving packages around instead of humans.
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The minivans have been retrofitted to seat about 14 people, nearly double their original capacity.
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That's more than 7.5 million cars, trucks, SUVs and minivans coming in from around the world.
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Waymo, meanwhile, will begin testing its self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans in the metro Atlanta area.
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An estimated 22017,2400 minivans were sold in the U.S. last year, according to IHS Markit data.
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An estimated 4003,000 minivans were sold in the U.S. last year, according to IHS Markit data.
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As Jalopnik pointed out, however, the minivans were more likely part of the Apple Maps operation.
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The minivans are plug-in hybrid variants with Waymo's self-driving hardware and software built in.
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Alphabet's Google agreed to partner on building a fleet of 100 self-driving minivans in May.
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As part of this partnership, we'll supply our proprietary self-driving system to Toyota Sienna Minivans.
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One of the first tasks will be to ready our self-driving Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans.
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The Waymo minivans in the Lyft program will all have a safety driver behind the wheel.
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"There is no way that minivans from Canada are a national security threat," Portman told reporters.
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Fiat Chrysler said last week it would supply Waymo with another 62,000 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans.
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The company has sold more than 12 million minivans, since being introduced by Chrysler in 1983.
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Ride in the back seat of taxis and in the middle row or seat in minivans.
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Avoid taxis in poor condition, motorcycles and motorcycle taxis, and crowded top-heavy buses and minivans.
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EPA's stringent fuel-economy standards didn't apply to trucks, SUVs, or minivans, which didn't then exist.
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" Still, she said, "I don't think the Google connection will obliterate the stigma attached to minivans.
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Nickerson chuckles warmly about her love of minivans; Selina mumbles something about having an expired license.
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It will begin testing self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans later this month in California and Arizona.
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In total, 16 vehicles — six sedans, three minivans, and seven crossover/SUVs — made the final list.
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Waymo, a unit of Google's parent company, Alphabet, will begin purchasing the minivans late this year.
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Investments toward underground high-voltage transmission lines and electric minivans and pickup trucks also polled well.
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Residents would no longer have to rely on the preexisting informal system, using mototaxis and minivans.
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As the family in Vacation learned the terrifying way, handbrake turns don't work well in minivans.
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Its fleet of Chrysler Pacifica minivans and other autonomous vehicles just hit more than 100,000 rides.
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You parked among the compact cars, campers and minivans from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and Ontario.
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GM introduced a trio of car-based minivans sold by its Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac divisions.
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The newly created Waymo is adding 100 Chrysler Pacifica minivans, built for autonomy, to its test fleet.
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Chrysler has already sold Waymo 600 Pacifica minivans for it to equip with its self-driving technology.
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Waymo recently said it was adding hundreds of Chrysler Pacifica minivans to build a 600-vehicle fleet.
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He was crammed with scores of others into one of more than a dozen waiting police minivans.
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Fiat Chrysler will make about 100 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans for Google to use as test vehicles.
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It rolled out a pair of special, 35th anniversary edition minivans the Chicago Auto Show in February.
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Also noteworthy are the number of left turns Waymo's minivans can be seen making in the video.
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Waymo's self-driving minivans use three different types of LIDAR sensors, five radar sensors, and eight cameras.
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Outside the walls of Castle, Waymo has 100 minivans driving 10,000 miles on real roads every day.
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Those vehicles, modified Chrysler Pacifica minivans, are part of Waymo's work to develop autonomous ride-share services.
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Fiat Chrysler originally announced that it would manufacture 100 minivans with Alphabet's autonomous technology back in May.
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Last year, Fiat Chrysler sold 270,000 Chrysler Pacifica and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans in the United States.
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The recall will affect certain Sienna minivans with model years of 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010.
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Waymo's trucks use the same suite of custom-built sensors that power the company's self-driving minivans.
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The 24/7 service now sports a handful of different car options, from two-seaters to minivans.
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The company has enough Pacifica minivans on hand, about 70 days supply, to withstand a short strike.
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It's happened again and again, with everything from muscle cars to front-wheel-drive sedans to minivans.
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In his review Ben wrote:Three-row midsize crossover SUVs are effectively the family minivans of this decade.
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As with many minivans, the third row folds down so it can be stored in the trunk.
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With CD players disappearing from those minivans, Kidz Bop debuted its own Sirius XM channel in 2014.
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They pulled up in beat-up cars with rattling engines, newly washed trucks, sleek Cadillacs, old minivans.
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Elsewhere in autonomous cars: Waymo is buying 62,000 Chrysler minivans to create its commercial robo-taxi fleet.
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The minivans will take packages from UPS store locations to a local UPS sorting facility for processing.
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Waymo is modifying some of its Chrysler Pacifica minivans for package delivery by removing the back seats.
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We raised the kids in a succession of five minivans, which our kids' friends thought was hysterical.
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And Waymo announced a program to let people in Phoenix test its fleet of self-driving minivans.
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Waymo has Fiat Chrysler and Jaguar Land Rover building its sensors and tech into minivans and SUVs.
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The company has about a 70 days supply of Pacifica minivans on hand, according to Automotive News.
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The technology will be used in autonomous Chrysler minivans, due to hit the road later this month.
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Local entrepreneurs banded together to provide minivans, sound systems, truck ads, banners, and catering for campaign rallies.
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Interestingly, the converse is also true: Drivers of minivans tend to deliver less volatile returns, the authors found.
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In Arizona, where Waymo (formerly known as Google's self-driving car project) is testing minivans sans humans inside.
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The Pacifica takes the place of two minivans, one of which, the Dodge Grand Caravan, is still produced.
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Today, the Pacifica minivans are manufactured at an FCA plant in Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detroit.
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Waymo currently operates its robo-taxi service, Waymo One, in the Phoenix, Arizona, area in Chrysler Pacifica minivans.
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Today, Alphabet's self-driving company has been working with a limited number of Lexus vehicles and Chrysler minivans.
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Minivans can pull off the same feat, but they can't tow 22.4,25 pounds like a Yukon XL can.
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More than 400 early riders use the Waymo app and ride in their autonomous Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans.
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A thousand minivans would cost $40 million, so this was at the very least an eight-figure deal.
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Minivans are already much like mini-buses, which makes the minivan a just-right size for sharing rides.
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On Wednesday, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said it plans to produce 100 minivans next year using technology from Google.
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Go deeper: Axios took a ride in one of Waymo's self-driving minivans at its secret testing facility.
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And a few weeks ago, Fiat Chrysler and Google agreed to produce a test fleet of driverless minivans.
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In January, the company brought some of its self-driving minivans to Atlanta for mapping and public testing.
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They were joined in the violence by the drivers of public transportation buses, three-wheeled scooters and minivans.
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Sometime within the next few months Waymo will start offering the public rides in driverless Chrysler Pacifica minivans.
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I thought I'd be riding in a military vehicle, but we rode instead in civilian trucks and minivans.
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Waymo, a unit of Google's parent, Alphabet, has been using Fiat Chrysler minivans to test self-driving technology.
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The company is adding 500 specially outfitted Chrysler minivans to its self-driving fleet, up from 100 now.
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While minivans still typically beat crossovers on practicality, the Telluride can definitely handle pretty much any family's needs.
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The trucks use the same set of sensors Waymo has been testing in its minivans, the post said.
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The company already had bought 600 Pacifica Hybrid minivans from Fiat Chrysler with a commitment to add "thousands" more.
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The company is also testing its vehicles — Chrysler Pacifica minivans and Peterbilt tractor trailers — in California, Michigan, and Georgia.
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Waymo, the self-driving division of Alphabet, is about to put more passengers its fully driverless Chrysler Pacifica minivans.
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Chrysler has completed the 100 autonomous Pacifica minivans that will join the Waymo (née Google) fleet in early 2017.
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Minivans hit their peak popularity in 2489, when American motorists were buying roughly 20173 million of them a year.
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Aurora's autonomous driving platform is already tested on other sedans, SUVs, minivans, big rigs, and other trucks and vans.
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Last November, Waymo began test-driving its minivans on public roads in Phoenix without a driver at the wheel.
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Many use their own vehicles — minivans, SUVs, and trucks, mostly — in order to "harvest" as many devices as possible.
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Waymo plans to add "thousands" more Chrysler minivans are to its fleet starting at the end of this year.
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The electric Jaguar SUVs will join Chrysler Pacifica minivans from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV in Waymo's robo-taxi fleets.
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In the US, according to The Atlantic, three times as many crossovers are sold as SUVs and minivans combined.
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This is in addition to the 600 Pacifica Hybrid minivans FCA has delivered to Google in 2016 and 2017.
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During the high season at dawn, white minivans packed with tourists converge on the main road in Luang Prabang.
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Waymo is already giving a select number of residents in Chandler, Arizona, rides in self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans.
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The minivans also have two other features designed to make passengers feel comfortable riding in a self-driving vehicle.
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In April, the company announced it would be testing a fleet of 600 Chrysler Pacifica minivans in Phoenix, Ariz.
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After all, Waymo has a small fleet of minivans and is just starting up in one city at first.
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Wheels ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Minivans are the automotive equivalent of the comedian Rodney Dangerfield's routine about not getting any respect.
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Last month, UPS said it is testing self-driving minivans in the Phoenix area over the next six months.
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The laser-emitting LiDAR sensors on the Audi A8 show what's around the car, just like on Waymo minivans.
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Fiat Chrysler provided Waymo with 100 Pacifica minivans refitted for self-driving testing in 2016, then 500 in 2017.
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Also covered are 2004 and 2005 MPV minivans, 2004 RX-8 sports cars, and 2006 and 2007 Mazdaspeed6 sedans.
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Those vehicles have been modified with sensors, cameras and radar equipment so the minivans can operate without a driver.
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We also just leased the first Streetscooters [Electric Minivans]" to conduct transports and see already a great market for it".
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Of the 14.3 million minivans sold by Chrysler and its successor Fiat Chrysler, about 10 million were produced at Windsor.
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They found, as the New York Times reported, people followed SUVs, pickups, and minivans at a greater distance than cars.
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Last year, the company began testing its minivans on public roads in Arizona without human safety drivers behind the wheel.
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Starting in November, Waymo's self-driving cars and minivans will hit the road in and around Detroit, the company says.
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The batteries of two minivans travelling simultaneously along the track at more than 100kph can successfully absorb 20 kilowatts each.
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Zipping a bunch of people and their stuff around a city safely is exactly what minivans were destined to do.
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Recently, Waymo began inviting members of its Early Rider program in Phoenix to take trips in its fully driverless minivans.
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Last November, Waymo began test-driving its minivans on public roads in Phoenix without a human driver at the wheel.
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On automated vehicles, FCA is supplying up to 62,000 Chrysler Pacifica minivans to Waymo, which outfits them as robo-taxis.
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In May, Waymo announced a deal with Fiat Chrysler for an additional 62,000 minivans to be deployed as robot taxis.
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Alphabet is adding 500 more Chrysler Pacifica minivans to its fleet of self-driving cars, the company announced on Tuesday.
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This particular batch of minivans will be used exclusively for testing, which means there's no commercial service being launched today.
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Beyond building 100 autonomous minivans, it's not clear that there are any plans for the two companies to work together.
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The companies announced in the spring of last year that they would build 100 self-driving Chrysler Pacifica hybrids minivans.
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The Phoenix program will be much larger in scale, and it will be the first to use the Pacifica minivans.
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And they're already making a difference -- from minivans to sedans to pickup trucks, fuel economy has increased across the board.
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Those minivans have become synonymous with Waymo's testing and its Waymo One ride-hailing service in the suburbs of Phoenix.
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That service is expected to feature Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans that have been modified to incorporate Waymo's autonomous vehicle technology.
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Waymo is currently testing its autonomous drive technology in 600 Modified Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans, most in California and Arizona.
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After doing a lot of research on new and used minivans and SUVs, we decided on a new Toyota Sienna.
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Waymo says in the near future its self-driving minivans will start giving paying customers rides in the Phoenix area.
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Fiat Chrysler is recalling 297,000 minivans in the U.S. and Canada because the driver's front air bag can inflate unexpectedly.
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Adam Silverleib, who has been selling Honda Odyssey minivans for more than 22008 years at his dealership in Raynham, Mass.
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Even with Google's help, the Pacifica faces an uphill climb, given the lowly standing minivans have in the automobile market.
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The older ones kept their younger siblings at their side, even as they climbed into public transportation minivans and buses.
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It's the first fully-outfitted version of its Jaguar I-Pace car, which looks significantly different from its Chrysler minivans.
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We made the final approach to Aleppo through a narrow, winding government-controlled corridor, crawling behind delivery trucks and minivans.
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Minivans grew from about 4% of the new car sales to a peak of around 7% in the early 2000s.
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Yet, the House bill, ignoring consumer interest, would instead slow progress toward greater efficiency, particularly for SUVs, minivans and trucks.
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The success of the minivans along with the company's K-car sedans saved Chrysler from the brink of financial disaster.
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Waymo also plans to add an additional 500 self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans to the 100 cars already in the fleet.
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But minivans are terrible at drifting, and you've probably got a few kids in the back who easily get motion sickness.
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Fiat Chrysler — The automaker has struck a partnership with Alphabet's Google unit to build a fleet of 100 self-driving minivans.
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"We were producing 200,000 minivans at one plant and Lee wanted to open a second plant to double production," said Lutz.
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A source inside Apple speculates this may have been one of Apple's minivans designed to collect data for its Maps product.
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In the meantime, the news that Waymo is buying up to 62,000 additional minivans is certainly stunning in its own right.
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Chrysler will make 100 autonomous 2017 Pacifica hybrid minivans, which will start rolling onto the roads by the end of 2016.
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Of all the cars Waymo could have chosen to operate alongside its self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans, why the I-Pace?
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Or, at least, it'll remind drivers that Honda isn't all minivans and mom-mobiles (not that there's anything wrong with those).
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Google and Fiat Chrysler agreed last month to work together to build self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans with Google's autonomous technology.
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Alphabet Inc's Google and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said this week they had agreed to work together on self-driving minivans.
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The company also announced a deal earlier this month with Fiat Chrysler to install its technology in a fleet of minivans.
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Honda is recalling about 900,000 of its Odyssey minivans because the second-row seats may tip forward if not properly latched.
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By the end of the year, Waymo will have its self-driving minivans available for public use in the Phoenix area.
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It would be putting its cars — well, minivans — on streets around Mountain View, where it already has an abundance of data.
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They're all too big and chunky to ever really be gorgeous, just like the minivans to which they owe their existence.
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But the upright shape and boxy proportions of minivans make it easy to transport plenty of people and lots of luggage.
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He likens high-performance computing record-seeking to focusing on building the world's fastest race car instead of highway-ready minivans.
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Pedestrians slipped and slid in traffic between huge trucks and luxury minivans on streets carpeted with compacted ice several inches thick.
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On Tuesday, the company was to announce the next phase of testing: putting ordinary people inside its Chrysler minivans and Lexuses.
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The minivans won't be fully driverless; Waymo says it will keep trained safety drivers in the front seat to monitor operations.
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Fiat Chrysler is recalling nearly 209,000 minivans and SUVs worldwide to fix a brake problem that can cause longer stopping distances.
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It used Ford Focuses for its first-generation vehicle and Chrysler Pacifica minivans (a la Waymo) for its second-generation one.
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Waymo ordered 100 Pacifica Hybrids Minivans in 2016 as part of the company's plan to test and develop self-driving vehicles.
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At first, only 400 early riders could use the autonomous minivans, but it eventually opened up to more than 1,000 users.
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Pedestrians slipped and slid in traffic between huge trucks and luxury minivans on streets carpeted with compacted ice several inches thick.
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The autonomous service is expected to launch in Phoenix Arizona, where the company already operates a fleet of modified Chrysler Pacifica minivans.
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The tech giant hopes to have at least a few of the 100 autonomous minivans completed by the end of this year.
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Google is planning on testing its new self-driving Chrysler minivans in Mountain View and Phoenix by the end of the month.
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To start out, Waymo will be bringing three vehicles (all Chrysler Pacifica minivans) to map LA, specifically downtown and the Miracle Mile.
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The agreement, first reported by Bloomberg, will see Avis service and house Waymo's fleet of self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans in Phoenix.
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On the Avis side, the deal means retrofitting existing owned real estate for housing the minivans, though not acquiring any more space.
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Waymo already has a fleet of 100 Chrysler Pacifica Minivans, and the company is ordering 500 more to support the new riders.
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Last week Bay Area-based Aurora — backed by Amazon — announced a partnership with Fiat Chrysler (yes, the same makers of Waymo's minivans).
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Waymo One has plans to purchase more than 60,000 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans and modify them at a new plant outside Detroit.
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Waymo already has with 100 Chrysler Pacifica minivans and is acquiring five times more, partly to be able to support the service.
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Minivans like the Chrysler Pacifica offer just as much room and practicality while beating the Yukon XL on price, technology and refinement.
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In May, Waymo said it would order up to 62,000 self-driving minivans from Fiat Chrysler for its driverless ride-hailing service.
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Certainly more attention-grabbing is the view from inside one of Waymo's fully driverless minivans as it cruises down an Arizona street.
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As customers hail more or fewer rides from different parts of the minivans' catchment area, it will redirect drivers to meet demand.
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And as the vehicle's performance improves, Gaffney said she has almost completely replaced taxis or ride-hailing with the self-driving minivans.
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That's building on a previous deal Waymo struck with Avis and AutoNation to clean and service its fleet of self-driving minivans.
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Waymo currently has 600 Chrysler Pacifica minivans in its fleet, some of which are used in its Early Rider program in Arizona.
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The first 100 minivans were delivered when the partnership was announced in May 2.000, and an additional 500 were delivered in 2017.
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The minivans could be on the road this year, the "first phase" of a broader autonomous car deal between the two companies.
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The recall covered 2011-17 Honda Odyssey minivans after Honda said it had 46 reports of minor injuries related to the issue.
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Waymo is already using Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV minivans and vehicles made by Jaguar Land Rover, a unit of India's Tata Motors.
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The country's largest auto dealer has signed a multiyear deal to service the growing fleet of self-driving Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans.
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Most full-sized cars and trucks can seat five adults, and minivans and many SUVs can seat between seven and nine people.
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FCA, which has delivered 600 Pacifica Hybrid minivans to Waymo till date, first announced its partnership with the company in May 2016.
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Waymo removed employees and passengers from its test fleet in 2017, sending empty self-driving minivans onto the streets of greater Phoenix.
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In 2015, Fiat Chrysler decided to focus on Jeeps, trucks and minivans and to stop making cars for the United States market.
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Edhi ambulances—small Suzuki Bolan minivans equipped with a single stretcher and oxygen canister—are not set up for pre-hospital care.
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Volunteers and charity workers were crisscrossing the region in minivans, delivering water and food to the residents who survived the weekend inferno.
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Uber competitor Waymo announced earlier Thursday it would be testing its self-driving minivans and tractor-trailers in New Mexico and Texas.
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Waymo is hitting the open road and bringing some of its self-driving minivans and long-haul trucks to two new states.
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It's currently testing its self-driving technology at locations around the United States including suburban Phoenix using modified Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans.
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The unveiling of the first Chrysler minivans in 1984 is still considered a landmark moment in the history of the automotive industry.
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In 2017, we'll see more autonomous people-mover style solutions (think minivans and buses) and a cascade of deregulation across the country.
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Roughly half of these new products will be sport-utility vehicles and minivans, while others are models for GM's premium brand - Cadillac.
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That has forced carmakers in recent years to shift the production mix rapidly to emphasize sport-utility vehicles, minivans and light trucks.
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The Scion xB, the Honda Element, the Nissan Cube: All were funky departures for Generation X from the dowdy minivans of their parents.
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The station wagons that were the vehicles of choice for increasingly suburban postwar America became passe by the 1980s, minivans taking their place.
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Twenty-three of those vehicles received the highest honor of "Top Safety Pick Plus," and no pickup trucks or minivans made the list.
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The minivans will have a Waymo employee in the front seat ready to take over if the self-driving software gets into trouble.
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Waymo already has 100 self-driving minivans that have been driving the streets of Phoenix and Mountain View, California, since earlier this year.
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The Google spin-off struck a deal with rental car giant Avis in June to manage its growing fleet of self-driving minivans.
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Waymo uses these self-driving minivans for testing as well as for its Waymo One autonomous ride-hailing business in the Phoenix area.
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But the same reasons why minivans are great for toting kids to soccer practice are what make them the ideal self-driving vehicle.
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The company also owns a fleet of prototype self-driving Lexus RX SUVs that are being phased out in favor of the minivans.
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Into this chaos steps Waymo, the Alphabet subsidiary that has been testing its self-driving minivans outside of Phoenix for almost two years.
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Waymo also owns a fleet of self-driving Lexus RX SUVs that it has been phasing out in favor of the new minivans.
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In 2017, Waymo ventured out to the public roads in Michigan with the intention of testing its autonomous minivans in snow and ice.
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Earlier this week, Google and Fiat Chrysler (FCA) agreed to work together and build self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans with Google's autonomous technology.
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More than 400 residents in Phoenix have been trialing Waymo's technology by using an app to hail self-driving Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans.
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Over the last decade, sales have shrunk as many automakers stopped building minivans altogether and more U.S. buyers gravitated toward sport utility vehicles.
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The partnership is structured similarly to Waymo's relationship with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, which supplied the tech company with its Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans.
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Many fewer minivans will be recalled in Canada and Mexico, but Honda did not immediately have details on the number of vehicles involved.
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Waymo, formerly known as the Google self-driving car project, is preparing to roll out more than 62,000 autonomous Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans.
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The company hopes to have its self-driving minivans available for public use in the Phoenix area by the end of this year.
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Later that year, Waymo removed employees and passengers from its test fleet, sending empty self-driving minivans onto the streets of greater Phoenix.
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The combined technology will be built into Toyota's Sienna minivans, to be deployed on Uber's ride-hailing network starting in 2021, Uber said.
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More: As part of the deal, the companies will outfit a number of customized Toyota Sienna minivans with their self-driving car tech.
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The United States imported $183.8 billion of cars, sport utility vehicles and minivans last year, $46.6 billion of them from the European Union.
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Until now, Waymo has been using a fleet of more than 600 vehicles, most of them Chrysler Pacifica minivans, for its road tests.
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It gave no details on how many minivans it expects to buy this year or next, or what period the purchase agreement covers.
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It plans to buy up to 62,000 Chrysler minivans and 20,000 Jaguar electric cars next year to deploy in a commercial ride service.
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In May 2016, Waymo and FCA announced a collaboration to produce about 100 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans integrated with Waymo's self-driving system.
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Meanwhile, UPS said Wednesday it is testing self-driving minivans with Alphabet subsidiary Waymo in the Phoenix area over the next six months.
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Nobody thinks that minivans are attractive, but of all the makers, Honda has done the most to give these microbuses a snappy exterior.
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Companies may make cars in a wider variety of sizes and shapes, from hyper-efficient one-seaters to luxury minivans to support family vacations.
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Instead, the company has partnered with Chrysler to outfit 100 Pacifica minivans with self-driving technology and has been in talks with Honda too.
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Beto O'Rourke has traveled to 20203 states and 91 cities, zigzagging across the country in a breathtaking series of minivans, coffee shops, and rallies.
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In addition, the company struck a deal with Lyft to add 10 of its autonomous minivans to the ride-hailing company's platform in Phoenix.
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It also intends to license its automated system to automakers such as Fiat Chrysler Automobile, which is already using it in 100 Pacifica minivans.
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Last January, the company took the stage at the North American International Auto Show to unveil for the first time its self-driving minivans.
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A video recently appeared on Twitter showing one of Waymo's minivans trying to merge onto a busy highway and pretty much failing at it.
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Two years ago, FCA said it would produce about 100 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans integrated with Waymo's suite of self-driving hardware and software.
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FCA and Waymo expanded on their relationship in 2018, with FCA announcing it would supply Waymo with up to 62,000 more Chrysler Pacifica minivans.
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The company also owns a fleet of self-driving Lexus RX SUVs that is has been phasing out in favor of the new minivans.
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Last month, Waymo, a subsidiary of Google-parent Alphabet, made some of its self-driving minivans available to customers of ride-sharing company Lyft.
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That said, over the course of a year, she has noticed a change in the way the self-driving minivans drive on the road.
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On any given day, Alphabet's Waymo runs its driverless minivans through dozens of staged situations on an old Air Force base in Atwater, Calif.
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Waymo is expected to launch its for-profit taxi service with its fleet of hundreds of self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans later this year.
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Google's self-driving car company Waymo just opened up a pilot program in Phoenix, Arizona, letting people get free rides in its driverless minivans.
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The largest sources of transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions include passenger cars and light-duty trucks, such as SUVs, pickup trucks, minivans, and sedans.
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Three years later, after the self-driving team spun out of Google and became Waymo, it was retired in favor of Chrysler Pacifica minivans.
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For the Phoenix project, Waymo will take delivery and modify 500 new Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans — on top of 100 it ordered last year.
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It's an approach similar to the likes of Google which last year announced a partnership with Fiat Chrysler to build self-driving minivans together.
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Here's what it felt like when the Atlantic's Alexis Madrigal went for a ride in one of Waymo's fleet of Chrysler Pacific Hybrid minivans.
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The paper reports that Alphabet will buy 85033 minivans from the manufacturer that will be made to accommodate the company's self-driving car technology.
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Numerous SUVs, trucks, and minivans offer ample cargo space and are capable of hauling a trailer or boat, which no subcompact can do safely.
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A hybrid model, a first among minivans, will arrive this fall and should go about 21982 miles on a gallon of gas, Chrysler said.
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But by then, minivans had come to symbolize utilitarian drudgery, and Americans began migrating to sport utility vehicles, with their brawnier, more adventurous image.
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Correction: Waymo has an option to order 62,000 modified Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans and 20,000 Jaguar I-Pace electric SUVs to expand its fleet.
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Waymo also just took possession of 100 test Chrysler Pacifica minivans from Honda competitor FCA, and will deploy those in its fleet, as well.
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Chevy Tahoes and Ford Broncos were already roaming town and trail, but something about the Explorer caused families to abandon their minivans in droves.
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Honda announced on Saturday it was recalling about 800,000 Odyssey minivans in the United States because of problems with locking adjustable seats into place.
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Waymo has ordered 500 Chrysler Pacifica minivans and will provide free rides to hundreds of customers who are accepted into the company's pilot program.
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If you're in Mountain View and you spot a self-driving car, the smart money says it's one of Waymo's modified Chrysler Pacifica minivans.
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Using Chrysler Pacifica minivans, Waymo will ferry packages from UPS stores in the Phoenix area to the parcel-delivery company&aposs hub in Tempe.
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For example, last year, Waymo brought three of its self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans to Los Angeles but only to map the downtown area.
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The big picture: Waymo has deals to buy up to 62,000 Chrysler Pacifica minivans and 20,000 Jaguar I-Pace luxury crossovers for its robotaxi service.
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We've long been proponents of minivans over crossovers when it comes to hauling families, but the Chevy Traverse is the best of the crossover breed.
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Later this month in California and Arizona, Waymo will start testing its technology in Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid Minivans, modified through a partnership with Fiat-Chrysler.
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A former Waymo driver was arrested in Arizona on Wednesday and accused of deliberately causing a crash with one of the company's self-driving minivans.
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Lyft riders in the Phoenix area will soon be able to summon one of Waymo's self-driving minivans for a ride, the companies said Tuesday.
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But the app that riders use to summon one of Waymo's self-driving minivans was only available via a private link in an emailed invitation.
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During his time at Google, he headed up discussions with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles that led to a partnership to produce self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans.
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In the era of the ultra-popular SUV and crossover, minivans account for less than 3 percent of market share, according to Kelley Blue Book.
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The pavement is taken up by a row of food carts, and the road is packed with a motley collection of lorries, minivans and cars.
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James Chao, Asia-Pacific managing director at IHS, believes other global automakers will mimic GM's strategy of emphasizing a market for affordable, family-oriented minivans.
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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has announced it will be delivering "thousands" of Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans to Waymo, formerly known as Google's self-driving car project.
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Waymo currently has a partnership with Fiat Chrysler for the production of 100 Chrysler Pacifica minivans, which will help speed up Waymo's tech development cycle.
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The companies said that Fiat Chrysler would design and engineer the minivans, and that Google would then integrate sensors and computer systems into the vehicles.
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Walmart has enlisted Waymo, Google's self-driving car unit, to bring shoppers to its stores in autonomous minivans, though it isn't delivering goods in AVs.
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Waymo has been creeping toward a commercial service in Phoenix since it began testing self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans in suburbs like Chandler in 2016.
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Fiat Chrysler (FCA), which already has a partnership with Waymo, will add Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans to Waymo's existing fleet, the companies said on Thursday.
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But the A100 was very much a work truck at heart, and far from the suburban-tuned conveyance that the true minivans would someday become.
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And let me tell you, as a guy who drives nearly 22015 different vehicles a year, I'll testify that minivans are magical for simplifying life.
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Just five minivans are on the market today: the Chrysler Pacifica, the Dodge Grand Caravan, the Honda Odyssey, the Kia Sedona and the Toyota Sienna.
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Minivans might float for as long as 10 minutes, but the odds of survival are highest if you get out in the first 60 seconds.
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Waymo is testing a small number of autonomous-drive Pacifica minivans in Phoenix, with some of them providing rides to a select number of people.
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"We are getting to a point where the market is pushing close to 65 percent trucks," once S.U.V.s and minivans are included, Mr. Fay said.
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And the Ghanaian people, like the passengers in the minivans at Kwame Nkrumah Circle, will continue to angle for what little breathing room is left.
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Waymo is already operating its fully driverless minivans on public roads and plans to soon open those vehicles to members of its Early Rider program.
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Fiat Chrysler will be providing about 100 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans for Google to modify its autonomous car tech onto and use for testing purposes.
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Earlier this month, Google announced it was partnering with the automaker to create 100 self-driving Pacifica hybrid minivans, and has already begun that work.
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FCA is also part of a separate alliance with Alphabet Inc's self-driving unit Waymo to develop self-driving cars based on Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans.
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It would be an expansion of a partnership announced earlier this year that saw Google install its self-driving hardware 100 Chrysler Pacifica minivans for testing.
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The company recently announced its plans to deploy its newly developed self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans in Mountain View and Phoenix at the end of January.
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Moving on, let's talk about how low minivans are to the ground, making them convenient and easy for your children to hop in and out of.
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The latter city is also playing host to Waymo's ride-hailing pilot, in which real people can sign up to use the minivans for daily trips.
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Let's assume for now that Musk isn't saying that Tesla will enable its cars to become fully driverless, like Waymo's driverless minivans, which rely on LIDAR.
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And it has said that it will begin offering rides to members of its Early Rider program in its "fully driverless" minivans in the months ahead.
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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced on Wednesday that it plans to produce 100 minivans next year with autonomous driving tech from Google's unit, housed under parent Alphabet.
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Today, the company announced its intention to bring its fleet of autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans to the ATL, but wouldn't disclose many additional details beyond that.
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Waymo CEO John Krafcik, an auto industry veteran, is more focused on building up a fleet of driverless minivans thanks to a partnership with Fiat Chrysler.
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Waymo is constrained by the fact that it is only gathering real-world data via a fleet of about 22017 to 600 self-driving Pacifica minivans.
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On a bright Monday afternoon, Waymo took us for a spin in its driverless Chrysler Pacifica minivans through a loop around a small part of Castle.
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Roscoe is no AI expert, but his creation uses neural network software similar to what Waymo's street-legal autonomous minivans rely on to perceive the world.
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The cars will be used for Waymo's driverless taxi service; delivery will be in late 2018 and the minivans will be deployed in multiple U.S. cities.
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But unlike in, say, a Lord of the Rings movie, these mushroom houses have satellite dishes poking out of their roofs and minivans parked in front.
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Last year, the company announced an expanded partnership with Waymo that will add up to 62,000 more Chrysler Pacifica minivans to Waymo's self-driving car fleet.
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In 2000, 1.37 million minivans, from more than 15 automotive brands, were sold in the United States — one-sixth of all new cars sold that year.
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The scope is extremely limited, just a handful of people in a 0003 square-mile radius using the minivans for boring errands and other daily trips.
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In recent weeks, some in the Phoenix area have complained about Waymo minivans stopping for too long at stop signs or struggling in certain traffic situations.
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Under the agreement, Toyota Sienna minivans will be equipped with Uber's self-driving technology and then deployed on the ride-hailing company's network, the companies said.
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In May, Waymo — which spun out into its own Alphabet subsidiary last week — struck up a deal with Fiat Chrysler to produce 100 self-driving minivans.
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Waymo began working with Fiat Chrysler in 2016 and has built a fleet of driverless minivans that it has been testing in Phoenix; Mountain View, Calif.
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Mr. Krafcik also discussed how Waymo was looking to start a ride-hailing service, which it is testing in Phoenix with thousands of driverless Pacifica minivans.
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In January, two of every three new vehicles sold were classified as trucks, including S.U.V.s, pickups, minivans and the lighter cousins of S.U.V.s known as crossovers.
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The company started testing its self-driving system in Chrysler Pacifica minivans and has said it will continue to grow this fleet over the next year.
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Over the past year, Waymo has built a sizable test fleet using minivans made by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and it is operating them in several cities.
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"The additional Pacifica Hybrid minivans will be used to support Waymo as it expands its service to more cities across the United States," the companies said.
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"The Pacifica Hybrid minivans offer a versatile interior and a comfortable ride experience, and these additional vehicles will help us scale," Waymo CEO John Krafcik said.
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Nearly two out of every three new models purchased last year were classified as light trucks — which includes minivans and even some small, S.U.V.-shaped cars.
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Sony says it imagines all these technological underpinnings could be used to power all sorts of vehicles, from SUVs to minivans to more utilitarian people movers.
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That situation was already bad in the recessionary depths of 2009, when cars outsold so-called light trucks — S.U.V.s, pickups and minivans — for the last time.
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"Minivans are an ideal option for families who want extra cargo room and seating, but don't require a vehicle that performs like a truck," Ly said.
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In late 2017, Waymo said it would begin a pilot ride-hailing service in Phoenix, Arizona, using Chrysler Pacifica minivans with no driver behind the wheel.
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Meanwhile, demand for vehicles with more space and utility helped pickups, SUVs, crossovers and minivans capture more than half of the market, according to the data.
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But as a resident of the Golden State, I can't help but think that we, not Arizona, should have been first to enjoy these particular minivans.
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Waymo recently kicked off public trials of an on-demand autonomous ride hailing service in Phoenix, Arizona, using its current generation self-driving Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans.
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Waymo is preparing to launch its first commercial ride-hailing service powered by its self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans, according to a recent report in The Information.
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The team's first job will be to develop the sensors and software for the 100 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans acquired as a part of the FCA deal.
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Waymo said in November that members of the public using a ride-hailing app would be able to ride in its fleet of minivans in ensuing months.
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That increase in safety likely played a role in the company's recent decision to start offering people rides in its autonomous minivans in and around Phoenix, Arizona.
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Intel has banded with Waymo (formerly known as Google's autonomous car project) to make self-driving hybrid minivans, and recently acquired the autonomous driving tech company MobileEye.
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That means only Class 1 and 2 trucks — which include minivans, pickup trucks, utility vans, and step vans — could receive permits for testing under the proposed rule.
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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced today that it would supply "thousands" of additional Chrysler Pacifica minivans to Waymo, with the first deliveries starting at the end of 2018.
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Waymo currently has 600 of FCA's minivans in its fleet, some of which are used to shuttle real people around for its Early Rider program in Arizona.
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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and Google could sign a deal as soon as today to make "several dozen" self-driving minivans, Bloomberg is reporting, citing unnamed sources.
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Local Arizona reporters who recently followed Waymo minivans for three days found the cars use "extreme caution in maneuvers" and often frustrate other drivers on the road.
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Fiat Chrysler said on Thursday it will eliminate one shift at its Windsor, Ontario, assembly plant where it builds minivans, resulting in the loss of 1,500 jobs.
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Jonas' thesis comes on the heels of the country's largest auto dealer, AutoNation, striking a deal with Google's Waymo to service the tech giant's self-driving minivans.
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The coming minivans would also use a stretched version of Chrysler's K-car platform, itself a variation of the unibody construction found in the Omni and Horizon.
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The company said the affected minivans, which include model years 2011 to 2017, have second-row seats that can tip forward if they are not properly latched.
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Voyage initially used modified Ford Fusion vehicles to test its autonomous vehicle technology, then introduced in July 2018 Chrysler Pacifica minivans, its second generation of autonomous vehicles.
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Waymo The business's decision to buy 73,000 Chrysler minivans for a robotic taxi fleet lets it progress from small tests to larger commercial operations later this year.
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There are many startups operating delivery robots of varying sizes — everything from fully sized minivans like Udelv to robots that look almost identical to Starship's like Amazon.
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It issues alarms when it determines something is "abnormal"—like loitering pedestrians or minivans—and prioritizes video streams for review by human operators in a control room.
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This week, the Japanese automaker Honda said it would spend $85 million to improve manufacturing flexibility at its plant in Alabama that makes S.U.V.s, pickups and minivans.
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Tents had sprung up between the S.U.V.s and minivans that nearly filled the parking lot, and open grills sent banks of smoke into the cold, wet air.
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The company has been testing the service for months with a limited number of passengers riding in Waymo autonomous minivans to make short trips in the Phoenix area.
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An ex-Waymo driver was arrested in Arizona on Wednesday after police said he intentionally caused a crash with one of the company's self-driving minivans last month.
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Abuelsamid shared this photo of the trunk of one of Ford's autonomous Fusions to drive home the point about why SUVs and minivans are so popular these days.
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I think definitely, as you shift to autonomy, or you shift to just higher-capacity cars, like minivans and things that have rear seat entertainment, it's definitely interesting.
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By contrast, the Waymo-powered minivans that have been driving volunteer riders in the Phoenix area still use safety drivers to take over control if something goes wrong.
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Uber says it will retrofit a fleet of Toyota Sienna minivans with its proprietary self-driving technology, but the vehicles won't be owned and operated by either company.
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Waymo currently has around 493 Chrysler Pacifica minivans in its fleet, some of which are used to shuttle real people around for its Early Rider program in Arizona.
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Tesla is obviously pursuing an all-electric program for its "fully self-driving cars," while Alphabet's Waymo is using Chrysler Pacifica minivans that are plug-in hybrid electric.
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Waymo currently has around 600 Chrysler Pacifica minivans in its fleet, some of which are used to shuttle real people around for its Early Rider program in Arizona.
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Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving car unit, is training its minivans in Arizona to respond to emergency vehicles like fire trucks and police cars, the company said on Monday.
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Google might have just signed a deal with Chrysler to build self-driving minivans, but it'll be a few years before you'll be able to actually buy one.
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Waymo, which began life as Google's self-driving car project, has built all of its own sensors for use on its latest test vehicles, self-driving Pacifica minivans.
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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said on Thursday it will eliminate one shift at its Windsor, Ontario, assembly plant where it builds minivans, resulting in the loss of 1,300 jobs.
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BEIJING (Reuters) - SAIC General Motors has started recalling 6,451 GL8 minivans in China due to problems with the vehicles' electronic steering software, the country's top quality watchdog said.
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General Motor's Cruise unit, for example, is developing an autonomous version of its all-electric Chevy Bolt, and Waymo has already been working with Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans.
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In the past, Fiat Chrysler had invested little in autonomous technology, other than supplying minivans that Waymo is using in its large test fleet of self-driving taxis.
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The traffic of Irma escapees stretched up to South Carolina, with minivans and pickup trucks packed with people, pets, bedding and even furniture crawling north up Interstate 95.
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Separately, Honda announced it was recalling about 800,000 Odyssey minivans in the U.S. • A decision is expected in Nebraska today on the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.
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Waymo will start delivering parcels for UPS using its self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans in Phoenix as part of a broader partnership with the shipping and logistics company.
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The "Aurora Driver," as the company calls it, has been integrated into six vehicle platforms from several manufacturers, including sedans, SUVs, minivans, commercial vans and Class 8 trucks.
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The Chicago Auto Show was full of interesting cars this year, from performance-oriented hot hatches to minivans that have upped their game for the new model year.
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Waymo also won't say how many trips it has given in its fully driverless minivans, but I can confirm that it gave one to The Verge this week.
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Alphabet Inc's Waymo last year introduced an automated ride service with human attendants in Phoenix, using specially outfitted Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans it buys from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
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Waymo's self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans, which are operating on public roads in Arizona and California, already feature Intel-produced technology for everything from connectivity to sensor-data processing.
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After Fiat Chrysler announced a partnership with Google to develop a test fleet of autonomous-drive minivans in May, FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne clarified that the deal was limited.
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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said on Thursday it will eliminate one shift at its Windsor, Ontario, assembly plant where it builds minivans, resulting in the loss of 1,500 jobs.
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Instead, this gives Waymo permission to use its self-driving vehicles — which are the Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans and eventually the Jaguar I-PACE electric vehicle — to transport people.
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It's an expansion of a partnership between the two companies that saw Chrysler working with Google to build 100 Pacifica minivans integrated with Google's autonomous driving hardware and software.
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During my first trip to Belarus, I was able to pick up a story the Journal really cared about, the planned closure of a plant making minivans for Ford.
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The biggest player in this space, Alphabet's Waymo, is looking to avoid this process by going to market with conventional, NHTSA-compliant Chrysler Pacifica minivans retrofitted to drive themselves.
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Meanwhile, Alphabet said that passengers were now paying for rides in Waymo's experimental minivans in Phoenix, which means that Waymo's autonomous cars are the first to introduce commercial charges.
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We don't know how many people are using the Google offshoot's self-driving minivans (Waymo won't say), but the ones that are have been surprisingly mute on social media.
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"I think minivans are going to stay around," said Jack Hollis, U.S. general manager of the Toyota division for Toyota North America, following the brand's own Chicago news conference.
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Waymo recently said it would acquire 62,000 self-driving minivans from Fiat Chrysler, while a SoftBank fund said it would invest $2.25 billion in GM's self-driving unit Cruise.
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For now, the robot-driven minivans, with a backup safety driver and a top speed of 25 mph, are limited to a few neighborhoods in the 613,000-acre community.
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The two drive controls provided to passengers in Waymo's Chrysler Pacifica minivans are buttons for starting a ride and asking the vehicles to pull over at their next chance.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said on Friday it was recalling more than 162,000 2017 Chrysler Pacifica minivans because a software glitch may cause the vehicles to stall.
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No financial terms were disclosed for the deal, which calls for Fiat Chrysler to provide Google with 100 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans built specifically to accommodate self-driving features.
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Ultra-luxury coupes, family-friendly minivans, electric taxis, impossible-to-park SUVs, battery-electrics, plug-in hybrids, compact city cars, race cars, and (of course) a crop of Teslas.
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Hill zeros in on the failures and discarded idealism of the boomers, a generation that pivoted, in less than two decades, from motorcycles to minivans, from socialism to sushi.
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FCA USA and Waymo have already modified 100 Chrysler-Pacifica hybrid minivans to include the sensors, cameras and lidar radar that allow the vehicles to operate without a driver.
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Savage cost-cutting and a nose for the next big thing, in this case smaller cars and minivans, forerunners of the craze for SUVs, returned Chrysler to bumper profits.
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Waymo gave no details on how many minivans it expects to buy this year or next, the value of the deal, or the period covered by the purchase agreement.
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Cruise is taking a different strategy than its rival Waymo, which uses vehicles that look like traditional minivans and have human controls, such as a steering wheel and pedals.
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The United States has a tariff of 2.5 percent on cars, minivans and sport utility vehicles, for example, although it has a 25 percent tariff on imported pickup trucks.
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When Aurora does test-drive cars this next year, it'll likely be the specially designed Chrysler Pacifica minivans — a model that is also used by Urmson's old employer Waymo.
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Op-Ed Contributor At Kwame Nkrumah Circle in central Accra, people form long lines each morning as they wait to pile into rickety minivans that take them to work.
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The move comes as Waymo, formerly known as the Google Self-Driving Car Project, prepares to launch a ride-hailing program outside of Phoenix using driverless Chrysler Pacifica Minivans.
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That means only Class 1 and 2 trucks — which include minivans, pickup trucks, utility vans, and step vans — can receive permits for testing and commercial deliveries under the rule.
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Security footage captured a two-toned Toyota Sienna minivan missing a hubcap, so investigators pulled records for 55 such minivans registered to residents of Columbia, where Mr. Kaster lives.
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The company reportedly gambled with minivans that could spontaneously combust, because it would be a big pain to fix them, and well, the drivers and passengers would probably be fine.
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Since he was invited to use Waymo One in December, Metz has posted at least a dozen videos on Instagram and YouTube, documenting his experience using Waymo's self-driving minivans.
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"We've become known as a company specialising in minivans and 'kei' cars, and we realised our offering of 'Honda-esque' cars has become increasingly weak," he told reporters in Tokyo.
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Rather than owning and operating the fleet of self-driving vehicles, these minivans will be owned and operated by an agreed upon third party, a new business model for Uber.
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"SUVs have definitely assumed the mantle of family haulers from the station wagons and minivans we remember from our childhoods," said Scott Keogh, president and CEO of Volkswagen of America.
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Waymo says it has tested its autonomous minivans in 24 cities across the US in an effort to expose its vehicles to a variety of environments, weather, and road conditions.
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The result, the companies say, will be self-driving Toyota Sienna minivans, which by 2021 will combine the Japanese carmaker's carmaking expertise with Uber's autonomous tech and ride-hailing platform.
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Its autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans will soon show up on the Lyft app there — another partnership from Lyft instead of the ride-hailing company building out its own autonomous vehicles.
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And let&aposs flip the script to the Democrats now, where Democrat socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, say she is the future because America is no longer soccer moms and minivans.
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This is a classification that covers minivans, trucks, and passenger cars, but is reserved for vehicles that meet economical fuel consumption standards and are consequently taxed at a lower rate.
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Google and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles are working together to have a test fleet of 100 minivans driving themselves around roads in Michigan and elsewhere by the end of the year.
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The Alphabet Inc subsidiary is testing complimentary Wi-Fi in its robotaxis in greater Phoenix, where hundreds of the company's identical, driverless minivans have been carrying paying riders since December.
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But this goal is in jeopardy as automakers increase the production of gas-guzzling light trucks, minivans and most S.U.V.s, which are subject to less stringent standards than other cars.
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"This technology has the potential to be transformative, " said Krafcik before having reporters take rides in Waymo self-driving minivans at the firm's R&D facility southeast of San Francisco.
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The planned capacity increase underscores its ambitions as well as the shift in customer preferences towards bigger vehicles such as SUVs and minivans in China, the world's biggest auto market.
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Most of the miles are being driven in the Phoenix area where the company has been developing and testing an autonomous ride-share service using modified Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans.
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For now, Fiat Chrysler said it is not changing its relationship with Waymo, the subsidiary of Alphabet it has worked with to modify Chrysler Pacifica minivans for self-driving technology.
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Others are keeping one foot in the present, like how Waymo is building a fleet that includes both all-electric Jaguar I-Pace SUVs and gas-burning Chrysler Pacifica minivans.
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For now, Waymo is bringing just three of its self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans to Los Angeles to map downtown and a section of Wilshire Boulevard known as Miracle Mile.
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UPS will use some of Waymo's self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans to shuttle packages between some of its stores in the Metro Phoenix area and its hub in Tempe, Arizona.
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It's not hard to imagine that they'd start with their most family-focused vehicles, meaning large BMW SUVs like the X5, X6, or X7, and FCA minivans like the Pacifica.
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Under the deal, the companies will incorporate self-driving technology into vehicles based on Toyota's Sienna minivans, and the companies plan to begin piloting the program in 2021, they said.
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If passed, consumers of larger vehicles like trucks, SUVs and minivans could be hit the hardest, as the changes to the program could completely stall efficiency improvements in those vehicles.
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It's using 600 Chrysler Pacifica minivans that can travel at normal speeds and have all the things people usually want in cars, like more than two seats, in its latest tests.
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Under a deal announced Tuesday, Google plans to integrate its autonomous tech into 100 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans, expanding the fleet of 70 autonomous Lexus RX SUVs it built in-house.
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Fiat Chrysler has an existing partnership with Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving unit, in which it supplies Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans for Waymo's driverless fleet, which is currently in operation in Arizona.
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That explains why Avis just announced a deal to take care of Waymo's fleet of autonomous minivans in Phoenix, and Hertz will reportedly play a role in keeping Apple's robocars running.
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The Japanese automaker said it was recalling 9,481 Serena minivans, which went on sale on August 24, due to the risk of short circuiting during use of the idling stop function.
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And Waymo, which is seen by most as the leader in the space, is now starting to offer limited trips in its fully driverless minivans in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona.
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Compounding the problem, from comic books to late night comics, minivans had become the butt of jokes -- derided as soccer-mom-mobiles, the vehicles you drove only if you had it.
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Later this month comes the overshadowed Detroit Auto Show, where automakers pivot to the stuff that people can buy, and what makes car companies money: trucks, SUVs, minivans, and luxury sedans.
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Waymo has ordered thousands of new Chrysler Pacifica minivans from FCA to help populate its autonomous ride-hailing fleet, which it will open to the public in 2018, the company says.
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The company has since expanded its focus to include passenger vehicle models and minivans, although it still plans to target low-speed urban use cases focused on solving last-mile transportation.
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WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said on Friday it was recalling more than 162,000 2017 Chrysler Pacifica minivans because a software glitch may cause the vehicles to stall.
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Toyota Motor Corp said its sales fell 216.80 percent to 217.01,748 vehicles due to declining sales of its flagship Camry sedan as well as its Tundra pickup trucks and Sienna minivans.
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The majority of Waymo's fleet of self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans in Arizona have human safety drivers behind the wheel; and the few driverless ones have been limited to testing only.
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But that dynamic changed markedly on Tuesday, when Google said it would expand its testing of autonomous vehicles by installing its technology in a fleet of minivans made by Fiat Chrysler.
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A strike by Canadian workers would have disrupted production of minivans built in Windsor, Ontario, including the new Chrysler Pacifica, as well as sedans assembled in Brampton, Ontario northwest of Toronto.
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"They are providing Google with 100 minivans, which is great, but there's not necessarily a lot of ongoing collaboration," said Karl Brauer, an analyst at the research firm Kelley Blue Book.
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Toyota Motor reported a 5.2 percent drop in U.S. sales to 172,748 vehicles due to declines in its flagship Camry sedan as well as its Tundra pickup trucks and Sienna minivans.
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On recent Fridays, minivans and pickup trucks filled the sprawling parking lot of the St. Dominic Church, where a food bank passed out bottled water using money from a disaster fund.
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It has also agreed to buy up to 62,000 Pacifica minivans from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, potentially giving it a fleet of more than 80,000 driverless vehicles within three or four years.
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Nissan said a fault in the electrical system could lead to a risk of fire in some Japanese models of vans and minivans, including the Serena, the NV200 van and Cube.
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Both the early rider program and Waymo One service use self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans to shuttle Phoenix residents in a geofenced area that covers several suburbs, including Chandler and Tempe.
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In the morning, groups of day laborers clustered around a corner along busy Roosevelt Avenue, before many were whisked away in minivans to construction sites across Brooklyn and elsewhere in Queens.
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Although today's minivans have gotten, bigger, faster, more refined, and more luxurious, they all still trace their roots back to the little Chrysler van that could from the 1984 model year.
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Waymo is operating a limited service using its autonomous minivans in Arizona, and is rumored to be close to launching a broader, commercial ride-hailing operation before the end of the year.
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Waymo, the company that spun off from Google's self-driving car division, retired all 50 Firefly prototypes, however, in favor of 600 Chrysler minivans that are now conducting public testing in Phoenix.
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Kia vehicles covered included 20143 through 22014 Forte compact cars and 22012 through 22013 Optima midsize cars in the U.S. Also covered are Optima Hybrid and Sedona minivans from 2011 and 2012.
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Avis Budget Group, the parent company of car rental services like Avis, Budget, and Zipcar, has struck a non-exclusive deal with Waymo to manage its growing fleet of self-driving minivans.
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On a call with investors, Lyft's co-founders cited the company's partnership with Alphabet's Waymo in Phoenix, in which around 10 of the latter's minivans are available for rides on Lyft's app.
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The minivans will be hitting the roads in Mountain View, California and Phoenix, Arizona, where the company's self-driving Lexus SUVs have already driven thousands of miles over the past few years.
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Waymo plans to start shepherding passengers in its fully driverless minivans (no safety driver) within the next few months, but that will only be available to a very limited group of passengers.
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Waymo continues to lay the groundwork for its commercial robot taxi service in Phoenix, releasing a video today with a 360-degree look inside of one of the company's fully driverless minivans.
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Of course minivans can function like van cabs that allow people to haul their belongings (this will be critical when people need to go shopping or on trips without their own car).
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It plans to launch a commercial ride-hailing program with its self-driving minivans later this year, something it is already trialing in Arizona, which could further bolster that data feedback loop.
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Although Google has said before that it's not necessarily interested in making a car, this hints that the company will be much more involved in the actual manufacturing process of said minivans.
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The Alphabet unit announced today that it struck a deal with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), one of Detroit's Big Three automakers, for an additional 62,000 minivans to be deployed as robot taxis.
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FCA recently renovated a plant in Windsor that makes minivans, but uncertainty surrounds its former American Motors factory in the Toronto suburb of Brampton, Ontario, which produces large rear-wheel-drive cars.
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The minivans were built at Fiat Chrysler Automobile's assembly plant in Windsor, Ontario, and were designed and modified over the last six months by engineers from the the car company and Waymo.
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Still, Uber received an important vote of confidence in August with a $500 million investment from Toyota with a plan to install Uber's self-driving system in a fleet of Toyota minivans.
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Both the Waymo early rider program and Waymo One service use self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans to shuttle Phoenix residents in a geofenced area that covers several suburbs, including Chandler and Tempe.
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Both the Chrysler Pacifica minivans and the Jaguar cars will be equipped with the radars, cameras and sensors that Waymo has developed to enable the vehicles to drive themselves on public roads.
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MOSCOW — France's players had barely finished celebrating their victory over Uruguay in the World Cup's first quarterfinal when a convoy of black minivans and sedans screeched out of the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium.
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Earlier this year Google's self-driving car project, now called Waymo, partnered with Fiat Chrysler to develop a fleet of 100 self-driving minivans and opened a technical office in Novi, Mich.
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Waymo, Alphabet's autonomous car unit, is ramping up plans to deploy a fleet of self-driving minivans as the company pushes toward the launch of a ride-hailing service later this year.
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Fiat Chrysler sold about 220,000 minivans in 2019, down 18.5% compared with 2018, but the company maintains its segment leadership with combined sales of the Pacifica as well as the Dodge Grand Caravan.
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Some experts are banking on a spike in home and car purchases as millennials begin their delayed adulthood (since adulthood in the US can only mean moving to the suburbs and purchasing minivans).
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Unlike some other players with similar ambitions — its partner Lyft, for instance — Waymo has only announced a partnership with one automaker — Fiat Chrysler — which provided the Chrysler Pacifica minivans Waymo is using today.
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These riders will be able to use the Waymo app to hail a ride in one of the company's autonomous Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans to take them to the nearest public transportation option.
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For now, the Waymo platform is being honed on a fleet of Chrysler Pacifica minivans — but the company has not-so-subtly hinted that other automakers are in its sights for the future.
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Last May, Google and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) signed a deal to make a fleet of self-driving Pacifica minivans — the first phase in a broader autonomous car deal between the two companies.
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Lower-priced options and different form factors like sedans, pickup trucks, or minivans would expand the potential audience for their EVs, as it seems many consumers are looking for a lower-priced option.
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And with the production of S.U.V.s, pickups and minivans continuing to rise, fuel efficiency and emissions for 2015 vehicles most likely grew worse, though we won't be able to confirm that until December.
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The research firm Sanford Bernstein estimates that auto manufacturing capacity in China will rise 22 percent over the next two years, bringing it to 53 million cars, minivans and sport utility vehicles annually.
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People bundled in coats and scarves and hats shuffled across a small ice-covered plaza toward minivans and cheap sedans whose running engines filled the small parking lot with a fog of exhaust.
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Honda, boosted by its popular minivans and a string of new models, is among the top potential gainers, overtaking rival Daihatsu, a Toyota subsidiary, for the first time in more than a decade.
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Cars and minivans snake along the remaining single lane, sharing it with pedestrians fighting off early-morning road rage as they slowly make their way from one end of the city to another.
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Waymo, which has the same parent company as Google, operates hundreds of self-driving minivans in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, where it runs a limited ride-hailing service for around 1,000 customers.
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Any strike by more than 9,000 of the company's Canadian workers would disrupt production of minivans built in Windsor, Ontario, including the new Chrysler Pacifica, as well as sedans assembled in Brampton, Ontario.
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A Corvette, BMW, Cadillac, several minivans and other autos - their tires sunk in sand and ocean waves lapping perilously close - are each a monthly feature of the "Beached Cars of Brigantine" 2020 calendar.
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Waymo has reached deals to buy as many as 62,000 plug-in hybrid Chrysler Pacifica minivans and 20,000 fully-electric Jaguar I-Pace SUVs to build out its fleet over the next few years.
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Partnerships are popping up everywhere, like Waymo's deals to install AV technology on Chrysler minivans and Jaguar I-Pace crossovers, or Honda's tie-up with GM Cruise to develop autonomous vehicles for global markets.
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The only thing to distinguish it is the pair of self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans tooling around in the parking lot that occasionally pull over so employees can take selfies in front of them.
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Aurora, founded in early 2017 by Sterling Anderson, Drew Bagnell and Chris Urmson, has integrated its technology into six vehicle platforms, including sedans, SUVs, minivans, a large commercial vehicle and a Class 8 truck.
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The Japanese automaker said the recall covered 2011-2017 Honda Odyssey minivans, all but 2,000 of which are in North America, and that it had 46 reports of minor injuries related to the issue.
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And Google is teaming up with Fiat Chrysler to equip a fleet of minivans with self-driving technology, making this the most dad-core rollout of autonomous vehicles in the history of Silicon Valley.
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But in China, Buick is one of the top three or four brands in terms of sales volume, and markets models not sold in the U.S., such as mass-market compact cars and minivans.
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Waymo, which is owned by Google's parent company, Alphabet, announced that it would buy up to 62,800 Chrysler minivans and 20,000 Jaguar electric cars for its ride service, which operates in the Phoenix suburbs.
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The startup recently signed a deal with a Chinese mobile gaming company to produce electric minivans in China, though the timetable of that deal (and any potential investment resulting from it) has already slipped.
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Earlier this month, Google and Fiat Chrysler agreed to work together to build a fleet of 100 self-driving minivans in the most advanced collaboration to date between Silicon Valley and a traditional carmaker.
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With some 6,000 unionized workers, the Windsor van plant produces all of Fiat Chrysler's minivans for the North American market, including the new Chrysler Pacifica, the Chrysler Town and Country and the Dodge Caravan.
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Auto manufacturer FCA US had no legal duty to warn owners or offer repairs for an alleged defect in a line of minivans made by its predecessor Chrysler, a federal appeals court has ruled.
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Alphabet disclosed, for example, that passengers of its self-driving Waymo minivans are now paying for rides, but the offering remains limited to the Phoenix, Arizona region and Waymo's finances are not broken out.
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The test uses Toyota Motor Corp Estima minivans equipped with its "Robovision" stereo camera and data processing system, although the company has said that it is open to working with all carmakers to supply vehicles.
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It's not hard to imagine Waymo using an on-demand app like Zipcar to serve up access to its self-driving minivans, or making them available to rent at an Avis counter at the airport.
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So, for now, the minivans return to the depot around midday for shift swaps, so the backup drivers get a break from what can be a fairly mind-numbing task: monitoring a self-driving car.
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Google and Fiat Chrysler have officially announced that they're teaming up to build 100 2017 Pacifica minivans with plug-in hybrid drivetrains that will become part of Google's growing fleet of self-driving test vehicles.
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Minivans may be not be sexy to moms and dads and indeed market share of the segment has fallen in the United States in recent years, but kids like them, said FCA executive Tim Kuniskis.
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According to ADESA Analytical Services, wholesale truck values were nearly 2212% stronger in April on an annual basis, led by mid and full-size SUV/CUVs up 2908% follow by full-size vans and minivans.
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Daya Hansten, marketing boss for Honda's top dealer, credits Honda's popular minivans and attractive finance deals - but he is not alone in his confidence: 25 car brands at this gathering showed off 33 new designs.
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Voyage CEO Oliver Cameron has big plans for the fresh injection of capital, including hiring and expanding its fleet of self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans, which always have a human safety driver behind the wheel.
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After dealers and Chrysler engineers failed to pinpoint a problem, some customers called on the automaker to buy the minivans back, and the company came under pressure to determine whether a serious safety defect existed.
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This year, Google reached a deal with Fiat Chrysler to equip its automated driving systems in 100 Pacifica minivans to try to make it easier for the technology to be installed on an assembly line.
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For its part, Fiat Chrysler modified the electrical systems and other components of 100 minivans built at a Canadian assembly plant and then delivered the vehicles to Waymo to add its proprietary self-driving equipment.
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MONTREAL, June 1 (Reuters) - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles on Wednesday reported a 0.3 percent rise in May auto sales in Canada, led by Jeeps and minivans, as analysts forecast another record year for the Canadian industry.
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Just two months later, Waymo — the autonomous vehicle division of Alphabet, Google's parent company — revealed that it was testing self-driving minivans in the streets of Arizona without any humans at all behind the wheel.
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On Thursday, Fiat Chrysler said it would recall about 208.92,000 2008-9 Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country minivans, as well as the 2009 Dodge Journey and Volkswagen Routan, which the automaker made for Volkswagen.
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Minivans are easy to get in and out of for people of all ages and abilities, they have lots of cargo space, and come equipped with plenty of real estate for touchscreens and other navigational tools.
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Waymo got its true start by working out a deal with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, which was renewed today in a huge way, and the two sides are discussing the possibility of selling their self-driving minivans.
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Over the last year, the auto industry has been leaning into minivans, vans, and shuttles as the types of vehicles best suited for these shared, pooled rides, either with a human driver or an autonomous one.
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Tech companies may see minivans and shuttles as the ideal mode of transportation, but city buses and subways are still the most efficient way to move large groups of people across (or underneath) dense urban environments.
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This explains why Phoenix, Arizona, is a popular place to test AVs; Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Google's parent company, hopes to launch a robotaxi service there this year, based on Chrysler Pacifica minivans.
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Google announced Tuesday afternoon that it is teaming with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and adding 100 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans to its self-driving car fleet, thereby doubling the number of autonomous cars in Google's stable.
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About 22018 percent of Buick's sales in China come from vehicles it doesn't sell in the U.S., such as the Excelle sedan, the GL22018 and GL8 minivans, the Velite 5 hybrid and the Verano compact car.
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SAIC-GM's factory in Shanghai, which opened in 2016, is one of the world's most advanced auto plants, assembling Buick minivans and Cadillac sedans and SUVs, including the CT-6 plug-in hybrid for U.S. consumers.
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Waymo has been inching toward a commercial service in Phoenix since it began testing in self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans in suburbs like Chandler in 2016 and expanded the following year with its early rider program.
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With the SUVs, pickups and minivans subject to weaker rules than cars, automakers can get away with building less fuel-efficient vehicles while throwing in baubles such as extra cup holders to run up the price.
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Waymo transported 593,259 passengers in self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans in its first month participating in a robotaxi pilot program in California, according to a quarterly report the company filed with the California Public Utilities Commission.
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But more recently, Google seems to have decided that designing its own cars is too much work; it signed a deal with Chrysler to supply hundreds of Pacifica minivans that it fitted with Google's powerful sensors.
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Later, they climb aboard overloaded taxis, buses and minivans for the two-hour trip to Herat city, the sprawling and crowded hub of western Afghanistan, where they sleep in packed hostels and cramped rooms behind restaurants.
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With that investment, Uber plans to provide its self-driving technology to a fleet of Toyota minivans, which may be operated by the Japanese automaker or a third party, the companies said in a joint announcement.
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Waymo, the self-driving arm of Google's (GOOG) parent company Alphabet, will use its autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans to bring packages from UPS stores in the Phoenix area to a UPS sorting facility in Tempe, Arizona.
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The Trump administration's trade war will make Toyota pickup trucks and minivans more expensive, adding about $3,000 to the sticker price of some of its best-selling automobiles, Toyota executives said after reporting record profits Friday.
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Waymo launched its ride-share service back in December, but has yet to make it fully public or expand beyond the Phoenix area where its modified Chrysler Pacifica minivans have been testing for the past few years.
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Also, the news of the improvements in Waymo's self-driving technology comes just as the company plans to deploy its fleet of autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans, which it first debuted at the Detroit auto show last month.
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Krafcik didn't comment on a report in Bloomberg that Google would be starting its own ride-sharing service in partnership with Fiat Chrysler using the Italian car maker's Pacifica minivans as its fleet of self-driving taxis.
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The company has been offering free rides in its minivans (with an engineer behind the wheel at all times) in the greater Phoenix area since late April in exchange for feedback from customers about using autonomous vehicles.
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The company has deals with Fiat Chrysler and Jaguar Land Rover to purchase vehicles from both companies — Chrysler Pacifica minivans and Jaguar I-Pace electric SUVs — that are then retrofitted by joint-engineering teams to become autonomous.
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Waymo, Google's self-driving car unit which is now a separate company in the Alphabet family, has gone a step further, operating autonomous minivans in Chandler, a suburb of Phoenix, without safety engineers in the driving seat.
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The Challenger's success has helped Dodge, which also sells minivans and trucks through its Ram line, carve out its own identity from Fiat-Chrysler's vast stable of brands as a purveyor of muscle cars and sports cars.
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As it prepares to make its fully driverless cars (without a safety driver in the front seat) available for rides to the public this year, Waymo says it has ordered thousands of additional Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans.
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The prices for UberXL, which offers rides in minivans and SUV vehicles, have also dropped by around 15% — the base fare is now $3.85, the per minute fare is $0.50 and the per mile rate is $2.85.
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The taxi service — available through an app that orders Waymo-ified Chrysler Pacifica minivans — has only been available for about 400 "early riders" in the Phoenix area, but Waymo says it will open up to more people.
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The world's largest computer chipmaker said its Intel-based technologies for sensor processing, general compute and connectivity were used in the Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans Waymo has been using since 2015 to test its self-driving system.
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The Center for Auto Safety, a consumer advocacy group, petitioned the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in November to investigate the issue after it said at least 50 owners had reported stalling in new Pacifica minivans.
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In Mexico, Toyota is recalling 100,000 vehicles including Corollas, Sienna minivans, and the Yaris subcompact model, while a total of 120,000 vehicles from both brands will be withdrawn in South America and other regions, the company said.
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No wonder Chrysler scored such a monumental sales hit when it introduced the first minivans to the United States market in 1983, for the 1984 model year: the Dodge Caravan and its corporate cousin, the Plymouth Voyager.
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Waymo, the driverless-technology company spun out of Google, has agreed to purchase as many as 62,000 minivans from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles for use in a ride-hailing service set to begin commercial operations later this year.
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Now testing in a Dallas suburb, its orange Nissan minivans distinguish themselves by interacting with pedestrians through externally mounted display screens with messages like "Waiting" or "Exiting" to replace the communications that a human driver might offer.
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And in 1998, it expanded its rules to include the hulking minivans and SUVs Americans had come to love, and strengthened the rule governing nitrogen oxide emissions, which would ultimately land Volkswagen in a heap of trouble.
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Ford has said it will build an autonomous car without a steering wheel or pedals by 2021, while Waymo has begun offering a limited number of rides in fully driverless minivans to its customers in Phoenix, Arizona.
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No date has been released for the launch of the commercial endeavor, but just setting a vague timetable is a change from last week when Gizmodo took a ride in one of Waymo's self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans.
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Spinning the self-driving effort off into its own company in December — and adding 100 autonomous minivans to the fleet — seems to have accelerated things, because the project logged 1 million miles in the last seven months alone.
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But GM is obviously feeling pressured to fast-track its self-driving taxi service, especially in light of recent developments like Alphabet's Waymo deploying its fleet of autonomous minivans in Arizona without a human driver behind the wheel.
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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Waymo autonomous vehicle group will begin testing a self-driving car program for hundreds of families in Phoenix, Arizona and is buying 500 Chrysler minivans to do so, the companies said on Tuesday.
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Ford has said it will build an autonomous car without a steering wheel or pedals by 2021, while Waymo is preparing to launch its first commercial ride-hailing service in Phoenix featuring fully driverless minivans later this year.
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A vote against the contract would have triggered a strike at Fiat Chrysler, shutting the Windsor, Ontario, van plant, which produces all the minivans the company sells in North America, and the Brampton, Ontario, assembly, which builds sedans.
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Waymo, a subsidiary of Google-parent Alphabet which is developing autonomous vehicles and related services, has officially expanded its reach and is now making some of its self-driving minivans available for customers of ride-share firm Lyft.
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It comes after a $500 million investment in January by General Motors in Uber's ride-hailing competitor Lyft, and an agreement in May by Fiat Chrysler to work with the tech giant Google to create-self-driving minivans.
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While Waymo is starting its robotaxi service with a small fleet of autonomous vehicles, the company an option to order another 62,000 modified Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans and 20,000 Jaguar I-Pace electric SUVs to expand its fleet.
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Waymo's Chrysler Pacifica white minivans will go driver-free initially around its Mountain View headquarters and neighboring Sunnyvale, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Palo Alto; Waymo employees will still be aboard, just not in the driver's seat.
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Now it's likely to be joyfully belted from the back of minivans: It has been turned into a musical motif in "Frozen 2," delivered in high-pitched, mysterious fashion in "Into the Unknown" by the Norwegian singer Aurora.
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Only hours before, that second group of reporters had secretly gathered at a parking lot near the Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, a regular departure spot for Trump, from which they were driven in minivans into the complex.
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Though Congress directed the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration to develop regulations that would require rearview cameras by 2011, it wasn't until 2014 that the NHTSA required that all new cars, SUVs and minivans include backup cameras by 2018.
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Waymo has indicated it's going to do the same thing with its initial path to commercialization, and it'll likely do so in partnership with Fiat Chrysler, which has provided the minivans used for its current pilot deployment in Arizona.
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Merging into highway traffic, navigating around groups of people, turning left — these are just a few of the hurdles facing Waymo's fleet of Chrysler Pacifica minivans that the company is hoping to turn into a fully autonomous taxi service.
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Those who move to Waymo One will continue to use the company's self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans in much the same way they did while in the Early Rider program — except now they will be charged for the rides.
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The tour included giving more than three dozen reporters rides in Chrysler Pacifica minivans traveling through faux neighborhoods and expressways that Waymo has built on a former Air Force base located in the Californian Central Valley city of Atwater.
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For its robot taxi service, the company has reached deals to buy up to 62,000 plug-in hybrid Chrysler Pacifica minivans and 20,000 all-electric Jaguar I-Pace SUVs to build up its fleet over the next few years.
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The company currently has around 600 minivans in its fleet, some of which are used to shuttle people around for its Early Rider program in Phoenix, Arizona; others are being tested in states like California, Washington, Michigan, and Georgia.
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In the last three years, at least a dozen e-cab apps have launched to meet the demands of a growing smartphone-armed middle class seeking an affordable and safer alternative to the city's reckless overcrowded matatus, or minivans.
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Now that SUVs account for about 50% of U.S. vehicle sales, it's no surprise that minivans have lost 35% of their market share over the last 10 years, according to Edmunds and IHS Markit research cited by USA Today.
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Waymo already has a permit to run a transportation network company (that's TNC, what you call a taxi or Uber) in Arizona, and is in the process of adding several thousand robo-minivans to its current, 600-strong, fleet.
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Operating primarily across the South and Midwest, guards travel up to weeks at a time along circuitous routes, typically picking up and dropping off prisoners in 15-passenger vans or sometimes minivans retrofitted with interior caging and darkened windows.
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DETROIT (Reuters) - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) will provide Waymo with thousands of Pacifica hybrid minivans as Alphabet Inc's self-driving unit begins rolling out its first public ride-hailing service later this year, the companies said on Tuesday.
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On Monday, Waymo and Avis Budget Group, the large car-rental company, reached an agreement that would put Avis Budget in charge of maintaining the 600 self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans that Waymo will deploy in the Phoenix area.
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Toyota Motor Corp, the No.2000 automaker in the United States by volume, reported a 5.2 percent drop in sales to 172,748 vehicles due to declines in its flagship Camry sedan as well as its Tundra pickup trucks and Sienna minivans.
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Waymo, which is testing a fleet of autonomous minivans in the Phoenix area, has developed microphones that lets its robocars hear sounds twice as far away as previous sensors while also letting them discern where the sound is coming from.
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The company's Chrysler brand famously partnered with leading autonomous technology company Waymo, providing the Google-spinoff with a fleet of 100 Pacifica minivans which are currently on the road shuttling passengers around Phoenix in one of the first driverless pilot programs.
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Waymo just launched a self-driving technology public pilot in Arizona, where its Chrysler Pacifica minivans equipped with in-house developed self-driving tech will be picking up families on-demand, with applications open to anyone working in the city.
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In order to accommodate what it hopes will be "hundreds" of riders, Waymo is ordering an additional 500 Chrysler Pacifica minivans from its automaker partner, Fiat Chrysler, which it will then outfit with the laser sensors it manufactures in-house.
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Waymo, the only other company to deploy fully driverless vehicles on public roads, has an OnStar-like button in its self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans in case riders need roadside assistance, but it has so far eschewed a teleoperation option. Drive.
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Working with former Ford colleague Hal Sperlich who joined him at Chrysler, Iacocca also gave the go-ahead to the minivans that for a number of years were the most profitable products offered by the third-largest of the Detroit automakers.
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I rode in one of Waymo's driverless minivans (on a closed test track, not on a public road), so I can attest to the fact that the thrill wears off quickly after you see how cautiously the vehicle handles itself.
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FCA will design the minivans so it's easy for us to install our self-driving systems, including the computers that hold our self-driving software, and the sensors that enable our software to see what's on the road around the vehicle.
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Over the next few months, 10 Waymo vehicles — the company modifies Chrysler Pacifica minivans with self-driving equipment like cameras and LiDAR sensors — will be available on the Lyft ride-hailing app in the Phoenix area where Waymo's been operating.
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"Waymo announced in late 2017 that is was bringing the aforementioned heinous minivans to Detroit with the purpose of mastering the area's harsh winters, as navigating conditions like snow can be tricky for the sensors necessary for autonomous vehicles to "see.
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Toyota Motor Corp, the No.2700 automaker in the United States by volume, reported a 2000 percent drop in sales to 172,748 vehicles due to declines in its flagship Camry sedan as well as its Tundra pickup trucks and Sienna minivans.
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In Europe, Ford's Mondeo sedan and S-Max, C-Max and Galaxy minivans are set to be phased out when they reach the end of their product lives over the next several years, two other people close to the company said.
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Previously, FCA had struck a deal with Google to make several dozen self-driving minivans, and Uber and Toyota announced that they had formed a "strategic partnership" that included an undisclosed investment by the Japanese automaker in the app-based company.
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Waymo would work towards equipping its initial fleet of 600 Chrysler Pacifica minivans with custom-built radar and vision systems, and an all-new artificial intelligence compute platform, to enable the cars to see even further and sharper, the company said.
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"You don't have to like the suburbs or minivans or soccer or even monogamy to comprehend that the biological nuclear family's stability and repertoire is tops over the long run," the sociologist Mark Regnerus once claimed in The New York Times.
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With Alphabet's Waymo making plans to roll out self-driving minivans to give paying customers rides and GM planning to announce its strategy for autonomous-drive vehicles, it's clear driverless cars and trucks will soon become a part of everyday traffic.
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The printers were hard as work last night as always, assembling the print edition of The New York Times that we pile into cars and minivans across the country to deliver to front doors and occasionally the hedges beside them.
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Mr. Mohamed said he had been one of the first Somalis to settle in Garden City, about seven years ago, crossing the plains in a caravan of minivans with other Somalis after their old meatpacking plant in Nebraska shut down.
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Meanwhile, Lyft posted on Friday that it was driving four times more autonomous miles than six months ago with more self-driving cars (also Chrysler Pacifica minivans, like Waymo) and more employee test rides at its Palo Alto Level 5 facility.
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Fey also got in a dig at the media: "Who drove the car into the crowd, Hillary's emails?" she jokes at one point, because Fey is nothing if not dedicated to the art of amusing wine moms in minivans across America.
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Waymo agreed in May to buy up to 62,000 minivans from Fiat Chrysler for use in its ride-hailing operations, after announcing in March that it would buy as many as 20,000 compact cars for the service from Jaguar Land Rover.
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By the time tensions had simmered over and tellies were being thrown into the backs of patiently-waiting minivans, Saxobeat had slunk off back to eastern Europe, leaving nothing behind but the faintest memory of his brief and fleeting existence.
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After scores of owners filed safety complaints or shared concerns through social media, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said Friday that it was recalling nearly 154,000 Chrysler Pacifica minivans to fix an issue that has caused some to stall suddenly while being driven.
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Waymo also has an existing partnership with FCA under which the automaker is supplying Chrysler Pacifica minivans for Waymo's fledgling self-driving fleet in the United States and eventually may buy self-driving systems from Waymo for its own vehicles.
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But because Waymo doesn&apost build its own vehicles, instead obtaining them from partners such as Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Jaguar Land Rover, the Alphabet-owned company wants to be able to install its tech on everything from minivans to semitrucks.
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The company's all-white, sensor-laden Chrysler Pacifica minivans have been a ubiquitous sight for over three years in Chandler and other suburban Phoenix communities, where the company serves about 1,000 active customers in an Uber-like ride-hailing service.
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The company said on Monday that it will deploy a small fleet of its Chrysler minivans in LA. Mapping represents the preliminary steps in testing out a location before potentially launching its services, which Waymo has no immediate plans to do.
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Until the image surfaced, Waymo was only thought to be developing its autonomous driving platform on its cars, Lexus SUVs, and minivans, which have been extensively promoted as it ramps up its efforts with a public self-driving program in Phoenix.
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American Honda Motor Co has been hit with a proposed class action in federal court in Santa Ana, California alleging that it sold thousands of Honda Odyssey minivans since 2010 with defective transmissions that it has been unable to fix.
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Minivans and S.U.V.s lined the parking lot on Saturday, as families in flip-flops packed the few things they had accumulated since fleeing Hurricane Maria nine months ago: a purple folding chair, a hot plate, a hamper full of laundry.
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Waymo's autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans, its latest generation self-driving test platform, have Intel -based compute for everything from connectivity to sensor data processing, which is what provides the basis of their autonomy, which allows for self-driving even in city conditions.
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Ford's new sedans and hatchbacks are to hit a Chinese marketplace where consumers have been clamoring for crossover sport-utility vehicles (SUVs), which along with multi-purpose vehicles such as minivans now account for nearly one half of China's demand for passenger vehicles.
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Although if they were, then the Cabbage Patch Kids were in cahoots with them, along with professional sports and soap operas, sitcoms, and talk shows, Saturday morning cartoons, minivans, and home improvements, and enough soda pop to fuel many a journey to space.
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Its autonomous spin-off, Waymo plans to add 500 Chrysler Pacifica minivans to the 100 already roaming the roads of Phoenix, and inviteds locals to sign up for free rides to school, work, soccer practice, or anywhere else they need to go.
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Those miles were logged over the course of the last eight years in Mountain View, California; Austin, Texas; and Phoenix, Arizona, by everything from the company's new self-driving minivans to its Lexus SUVs, and the tiny bug-like "Google Car," too.
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Students arriving at dorms in their parents' minivans drop their Kenmore mini-fridges in their rooms, lock mountain bikes to squiggly racks, and then perhaps check out early-evening showings of films like I Never Thought It Was Rape or It Was Rape.
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Waymo, the autonomous vehicle division of Alphabet, Google's parent company, reached an important milestone recently: since mid-October, the company has been operating its autonomous minivans on public roads in Arizona without a safety driver — or any human at all — behind the wheel.
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So are tech upstarts, from Uber to Tesla to Waymo, Alphabet's self-drive division and the leader in driverless technology, which recently announced plans to add 62,000 minivans to the fleet of cars that will make up its autonomous ride-hailing service.
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But the company recently announced it was expanding its partnership with Fiat Chrysler, adding 500 more of its minivans to its fleet across the U.S. This is just the latest in a series of blows to Uber's and Waymo's once potentially fruitful relationship.
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Related: Syrian Regime Blocks Aid Convoy and Shells Civilians Who Gathered to Receive It Footage broadcast by the state-run al-Ikhbariya news channel of what it said were scenes of the blasts in Jableh showed several twisted and incinerated cars and minivans.
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This summer, the company announced a partnership with this Walmart, a deal that allows select locals to preorder groceries and hitch a ride to and from the store with the company's sensor-clad minivans, which still mostly have safety operators behind the wheel.
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Waymo said members of the public will begin riding in its fleet of Fiat Chrysler Pacifica minivans without human drivers in a test run of the service in the next few months in certain areas of Phoenix, Arizona, which has dry, predictable weather.
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During a crimson Indian Ocean sunset at Port Hedland's Utah Point berth recently, a conveyor belt dumped iron ore into one of the seven large holds of a Chinese-owned freighter held in place by mechanical suction cups the size of minivans.
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Last month, to protest the start of the Canadian government putting a price on carbon emissions, right-leaning politicians across the country posted photographs of themselves on Twitter resolutely filling up their S.U.V.s, minivans and pickup trucks with gasoline.
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Waymo has dispatched more than 100 Chrysler self-driving minivans to chauffeur select families and other residents as part of a closely guarded trial; the company plans to expand to 600 vehicles by the end of the year, with the majority in Chandler.
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While most of these sensor-clad, software-stuffed Chrysler Pacifica minivans have human backups behind the wheel, Waymo is gradually allowing early rider program participants into vehicles without a human to take the wheel—making the cars not just self-driving, but driverless.
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Cruz del Sur, the operator of the bus, said in a statement that the accident occurred early Monday morning when the bus was going around a bend and hit minivans that were at the edge of the roadway, causing the bus to roll.
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Cruz del Sur, the operator of the bus, said in a statement that the accident occurred early Monday morning when the bus was going around a bend and hit minivans that were at the edge of the roadway, causing the bus to roll.
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In 13, for example, Honda recalled about 600,000 cars in China because sludge was collecting in the engines of six models when driven in cold weather while the sliding doors on its U.S. Odyssey minivans started opening while the vehicles were moving.
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WASHINGTON — Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida came to Washington in 2017 with a reputation for bipartisan deal-cutting in the State Legislature — then spent a year idling behind the slow-moving minivans in the House Republican Conference like a Mustang stuck in traffic.
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There is "appeal in contributions from new products, such as compact SUVs for global markets and minivans for Indonesia sales growth, synergies with Nissan Motor, and cost savings over the longer term," said Masataka Kunugimoto, research analyst at Nomura, in a note on Tuesday.
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FCA has already partnered with Waymo in 2016 with Chrysler Pacifica minivans that have subsequently been sent out on the road, but its work in self-driving research and other mobility experiments has generally paled against crosstown rivals Ford Motor Company and General Motors.
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On the same day of a massive $2.25 billion Softbank investment into General Motors' Cruise, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) is announcing an expanded partnership with Waymo that will add up to 62,000 more Chrysler Pacifica minivans to Waymo's self-driving car fleet later this year.
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Waymo, the self-driving car startup spun-off from Google late last year, will be deploying its fleet of self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans onto public roads for the first time later this month, the company announced at the North American International Auto Show today.
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And I say "lucky" because to ride in one of Waymo's autonomous minivans, not only do you have to live in one of four suburbs around Phoenix, but you also have to be in a very exclusive, 22018-person club called the Early Riders.
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In May, Google and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said they had agreed to work together to build a fleet of 100 self-driving minivans, marking the first time a Silicon Valley firm had teamed up with a traditional carmaker to develop an autonomous vehicle.
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The public launch of its Pacifica-based self-driving ride hailing service is set to occur sometime later this year, after Waymo starts testing its minivans without anyone behind the wheel, achieving true Level 4 autonomy for their designated bounded test area in Arizona.
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The video features plenty of shots of Waymo's self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans operating on public roads without a driver behind the wheel, which seems like an effort to rebuff reports that it is still using safety drivers in the majority of its testing.
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The I-Pace, which made its global debut earlier this month, is not as much of a people-mover as Waymo's Chrysler Pacifica minivans, but it will serve as a more high-end ride for those willing to pay a premium for their driverless transportation.
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Whether or not the Moana soundtrack supplants "Let it Go" in the minivans of parents everywhere may depend more on the parents' need to switch than anything else: Moana's soundtrack is exuberant and fun, but a little more lyrically complicated, and thus potentially less earwormy.
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On Tuesday Google and Fiat Chrysler engineers said they will work together to fit Google's autonomous driving technology into the Chrysler Pacifica minivans, working together at a facility in Southeast Michigan, where Fiat Chrysler has its major North American engineering center, the companies said.
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GEORGIA SHERIFF HIRES COP FIRED AFTER HITTING SUSPECT WITH HIS PATROL CAR Henderson, while not giving specific details, said during a news conference that investigators were able to determine most incidents took place on Wednesdays and Fridays, and that minivans were the typical target.
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In May, Google and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said they had agreed to work together to build a fleet of nearly 100 self-driving minivans, the first time a Silicon Valley firm had teamed up with a traditional carmaker to develop an autonomous vehicle.
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Waymo, the driverless-technology company spun out of Google, said Thursday that it had agreed to purchase as many as 993,000 minivans from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles for a ride-hailing service that will start operating commercially in Phoenix by the end of this year.
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The autonomous car company, which famously spun off as an independent entity after years of development as the Google X self-driving car project, was recently spotted running tests on something other than its instantly recognizable fleet of Waymo-branded Chrysler Pacifica minivans: a truck.
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I've been to places "on the up" before and I expected to see the telltale signs of a new tourism boom: cranes dotting the horizon; sunburned crowds settling into lounge chairs on the beach; minivans heading out in packs for day trips to nearby sites.
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A place where one can cruise with the windows down, crank up the tunes, and see things like naked men on ATVs, cats surfing on minivans, and even a person clinging to life on the hood of a car while talking on their cellphone.
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Ford has said it will build a steering-wheel-and-pedal-less autonomous car by 2021, while Waymo, the self-driving unit of Google parent Alphabet, is preparing to launch its first commercial ride-hailing service in Phoenix featuring fully driverless minivans (though still with traditional controls).
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For over a year, Waymo has been offering trips to the 272-plus members of its Early Rider program who use Waymo's ride-hailing app to summon the minivans for free trips to school, the mall, the gym, or elsewhere within its suburban Phoenix service area.
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But it's worth noting that the minivans were spotted around the same time that Google made two significant announcements: its self-driving Lexus SUVs have driven a combined 2 million miles on public roads; and the company is launching a new ride-sharing service centered on carpooling.
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GM's announcement that it plans to start a self-driving ride-hailing service comes less than a month after Waymo, formerly known as the Google Self Driving Car Project, said it will start a ride-hailing service in the Phoenix area using self-driving Chrysler minivans.
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AutoX, which is based in Hong Kong, says it will integrate its self-driving hardware and software in a fleet of Chrysler Pacifica minivans, which is also the vehicle of choice for Waymo, the Alphabet subsidiary that is widely seen as the leader in self-driving technology.
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Put simply, it is all well and good for Ford to garner press about delivering pizzas in Miami with driverless vehicles, or for Waymo to become the talk of the internet by partnering with a luxury carmaker, while they continue tests on minivans in Chandler, Arizona.
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In a blog post this afternoon, Waymo leaders write that time has come to "retire our fleet of Fireflies" — their name for the tiny cars — and focus instead of integrating self-driving technology into other vehicles, like the Chrysler Pacifica minivans Waymo put on the road earlier this year.
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Despite growing climate concerns, American automakers have struggled to make significant gains in overall fuel efficiency in recent years, as they increase the production of gas-guzzling light trucks, minivans and sport utility vehicles, which are subject to less stringent emissions standards, and better for companies' bottom lines.
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The Alphabet-owned company quietly kicked off public availability of its Fiat-Chrysler Pacifica minivans and other autonomous vehicles, equipped with self-driving hardware and software, with a small group of testers who live in the Phoenix area, giving them an autonomous way to move around the city.
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"We are pleased to see Chrysler respond appropriately by conducting a full recall of the Pacifica Minivans, because stalling is an incredibly dangerous condition that puts the lives of drivers, passengers and others sharing the road at risk," Jason Levine, the group's executive director, said in a statement.
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While getting into Waymo's self-driving taxi service, Waymo One, which launched in December in self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans, Dolgov was asked by a reporter about Musk's ambitious goals to have fully self-driving vehicles up and running by the end of next year wherever Tesla owners have cars.
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Waymo, the newly-minted Alphabet company that was previously Google's self-driving car project, has a new addition to its vehicle fleet: 100 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans, which were produced by Fiat Chrysler specifically for the purpose of making them fully autonomous using Waymo's tech, onboard computer power, sensors and telematics.
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Nearly a decade after beginning life as Google's self-driving car project—and helping make the idea of driverless cars real—Waymo is now the smallest of steps from launching a commercial service: It has members of the public riding in its retrofitted Chrysler Pacifica minivans, with nobody at the wheel.
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In comparison, Waymo, the self-driving car company owned by Alphabet, which is under the same parent company as Google, said that when its Chrysler Pacifica minivans find themselves in this scenario, they detect a double-parked vehicle, classify it as a "stalled vehicle," and figure out how to drive around it.
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That 4 million miles represents the self-driving effort of Waymo's entire test fleet, covering its original autonomous vehicles all the way up to its current driverless Chrysler Pacifica minivans, which are actually now testing on Arizona public roads, right alongside everyday human drivers, with no safety driver behind the wheel at all.
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And so, one after another, the Democrats stepped into this small-town painting: the Senate firebrand from Massachusetts, two Brooklynites, the House leader from San Francisco, in her dark sunglasses, assembling in front of a swing set and a row of minivans and telling the people why they should listen this time.
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Waymo recently hosted a number of journalists at its private Castle testing compound, and treated us to rides with no safety driver behind the wheel – now, the former Google self-driving car company is going farther still, however, launching public road tests of its autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans with no safety driver on board.
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Waymo also said at the time that it would be partnering with manufacturing company Magna International on bringing its self-driving technology to "our fleet of different vehicles," which includes vehicles from Jaguar Land Rovers and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, the latter of which is responsible for Waymo's uglier-than-sin Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans.
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With 2016 in the rearview, look for the company to put even more focus on fine-tuning its self-driving system this year — the report's numbers don't even account for Waymo's in-house efforts to overhaul its self-driving platform, which hit California's roads in a fleet of Chrysler Pacifica minivans at the end of last month.
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This isn't the first time we've heard about Apple's clandestine car operationsRecent reports have pointed to Apple's increase in R&D spending as a sign it might finally be preparing to unleash some sort of car-related project, and last year, a few minivans outfitted with LIDAR and cameras were spotted in New York and California.
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The 53,000-square-foot facility will be used for research and development in concert with the company's Michigan-based partners — this is still the home of the American auto industry, after all — and will be where Google works alongside Fiat Chrysler (based another 30 miles north in Auburn Hills) to build its self-driving minivans starting later this year.
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As of now, the loudest signal continues to come from the supply side: In a report released Friday, Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak observed that Waymo, Alphabet's autonomous car venture, is scaling up: Last week, Waymo committed to buy up to 62,000 Chrysler minivans; that's on top of its agreement with Jaguar to add autonomy to 20,000 all-electric I-Pace SUVs.
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Enshrined at Mountain View, it's Waymo Model T.Now, Grunnan spends his time managing Waymo's diverse and growing fleet, which includes everything from Chrysler Pacifica minivans to prototype semi tractors that, like the Priuses and Lexuses of the old days, have to be torn down and equipped with what Waymo now calls its "driver," a suite of hardware and software systems.
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If Uber and Lyft continue to convince more people to share rides and use fixed routes, and the companies' automatic routing systems grow more precise, it's easy to imagine a future where a fleet of minivans or charter buses use Uber and Lyft's platforms and transport herds of commuters to and from work every day, alongside subways, buses, dollar vans, and other modes of transportation.
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The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation contains the car industry's greatest hits, from the 1896 Ford Quadricycle Runabout (the first car he built) and the famed 1919 Ford Model T Sedan to boxy '80s minivans and more recent hybrids; also on display are the limousine in which President John F. Kennedy was killed and the bus in which Rosa Parks remained seated and made history.
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Waymo has provided some additional visibility into how it goes about testing its autonomous vehicle tech in extreme heat, describing a process of stress testing its Chrysler Pacifica minivans that began nearly a year ago, starting with a controlled internal wind tunnel that can replicate the hottest temperatures ever on record in the U.S. That kicked off a road trip that included heat testing in as many deriving scenarios as possible, all under the hottest conditions available in the U.S. So Waymo tested stop-and-go traffic performance, long ideas, operating on aggressively sloped roads – and even monitoring cabin controls as well as the state of its self-driving software and the exterior of the vehicle using onboard sensors.
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