FCA President Sergio Marchionne says the Windsor Assembly Plant will have some involvement in the self-driving test program with Google.
As part of the partnership announced last week FCA will design and engineer 100 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrids to hold Google's self-driving technology. "The electrical architecture of the Pacifica is strong enough to hold all of the technology that Google needed to introduce in the vehicle so it was a marriage of capability of the car in the vehicle and technical support for what they need to introduce as technology in the car," says Marchionne.
Marchionne says "ultimately" that technology will need to be installed on the assembly line in Windsor. "I'm unaware of the number of Canadian based R&D people that will be involved in the project. The project is being run out of Auburn Hills from FCA standpoint," says Marchionne. Marchionne says he will advocate for the self-driving cars to be tested here in Windsor but he can make no guarantees because at the end of the day Google will own the vehicles.
