Photos capture Google's self-driving Chrysler minivans

PanARMENIAN.Net - Google is about to speed up its effort by deploying a lot more vehicles through its partnership with Fiat-Chrysler to build a fleet of self-driving Pacifica, Chrysler’s new plug-in hybrid minivan. The first few prototypes were spotted in Mountain View over the weekend, Electrek reports.

Google is currently equipping a fleet of 100 Pacifica minivans with a new suite of sensors to test its self-driving system. The 100 prototypes will represent a significant addition to Google’s fleet which currently consists of only 24 Lexus Rx450h SUVs and 34 prototypes of its own design spread out in 4 cities: Mountain View, Kirkland, Phoenix, and Austin.

The first 6 minivans arrived at one of Google’s facilities in Mountain View and the company already equipped two of them with sensor suites and installed mounting systems on others.

With these new prototypes, Google is clearly trying to make its system more “commercialization-friendly.” The roof-mounted sensor suite is much smaller than the one on the Lexus Rx450h SUVs and the lidar sensor doesn’t stick out as much as on the small Google prototype car.