Google has announced that recent expansion plans for its self-driving car project will see it moving into a new facility near Detroit. The company says it’s establishing a self-driving technology development centre in Novi, Michigan, and will be moving in to the new place over the rest of the year.
It says this will bring it closer to its working partners, allowing it to collaborate more easily with them. One of the first tasks for the 53,000 sq ft development centre, which will further develop and refine self-driving technology, will be to ready the company’s self-driving Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid MPVs.
Earlier in the month, it was reported that the re-engineered Chryslers are set to expand Google’s self-driving test programme fleet, doubling it from the current volume.
The self-driving Pacifica is being developed together with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), which will initially design and engineer approximately 100 vehicles for the programme. Google, meanwhile, will integrate sensors and computers that the vehicles require to navigate autonomously.
Both companies will have a section of their engineering teams housed in the Novi facility. When ready, the Pacifica will initially be tested by Google’s self-driving car team on its private test track in California, before heading out onto public roads.
The company’s prototype self-driving cars are currently on the road in California, Texas, Washington and Arizona. The firm has also previously experimented with its autonomous technology using a fleet comprising an Audi TT and a number of Toyota Prius and Lexus RX mules.
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So what, Proton hybrid project moved to Mars also.