Google Self-Driving Car to “Graduate,” Separate From Alphabet

Google’s Self-Driving Car Project is slated to reach a new milestone as it prepares to transition into a separate company outside of the Alphabet umbrella. The news comes from project CEO John Krafcik, who was in attendance at this week’s Nikkei Innovation Forum where he spoke and provided an update on Google’s self-driving car program.

“Around a year ago we announced this new Alphabet structure and the ‘bet’ of Alphabet is sort of a shorthand for these new entities that are forming within this new corporate structure,” Krafcik said. “So this self driving car project is on its way to what we call a graduating project.”

The self-driving car program currently operates under Google X, a division that Krafcik described as a place where “moonshot” and experimental projects take place. Projects that graduate from Google X typically fall under Alphabet, but it appears Krafcik’s project will be completely independent, with no affiliation with Google’s parent company.

Forbes reports that the move–which comes with a new name for the project–will happen soon.

To date, the Google self-driving project has been testing prototypes of its pod-like autonomous cars on public roads in Austin, Texas, and around its headquarters in Silicon Valley. The company recently inked a deal with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to test its autonomous driving technology in at least 100 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans, with a bulk of the evaluations to take place in Michigan.

Source: Forbes

The post Google Self-Driving Car to “Graduate,” Separate From Alphabet appeared first on Motor Trend.

from Motor Trend http://ift.tt/2eXy8Kj