Google and FCA have recently
been talking through a deal to make progress towards a new autonomous, robotic automobiles. This cooperation is in an effort to change the perception of Google’s auto industry focus to “working with a partner to develop vehicles, rather than just adding its equipment to existing ones.” FCA is the first of the auto giants to get into bed with a tech company in order to make moves in this direction. This deal will allow Google to have direct connection and “clear pathway into the brain of the car”.
This decision could have been made because out of all the “major auto manufacturers, FCA has invested little in new and possibly disruptive technologies like electric and robot cars. It has fallen behind companies like Tesla, GM, Ford, Mercedes and Volkswagen’s Audi.” This makes sense why then FCA would be in the market for these investments and deals. 
The fact that they have also been struggling the past few quarters gives yet another reason for why FCA might be investing in a new technology with a well known company to try and gain an upper leg on the competition.
Colin Bird of the IHS agrees saying that “Teaming up with Google helps put FCA in a stronger position to compete when it comes to autonomous car research and development, though significant effort remains to introduce this technology into FCA production vehicles.”
Link to Article
I’m glad to hear an update about this development. It’s important that automakers and third party non-industry firms to create new automotive technology. This opens the market to multitudes of firms who can enter the market in order to make profit. I think that the partnership between FCA and Google spells good technological advances in the future of the auto industry.
Thomas Barnett
See my comments on another post, FCA as a smaller company is more interested in this sort of venture than (say) GM or Toyota, while Krafcik at Google has introduced a dose of realism into Google, helped by Tesla’s obvious difficulties.
I think this shows how FCA, in order to maximize their profits, needs to make deals with companies like Google who are a little ahead of the game when it comes to technological advancements. In order to get an edge on the big names in the industry such as Ford and GM, they need to invest in new technologies like autonomous cars that have the potential to be the where all the money will be in 10-20 years.