Waymo, Chrysler and Walmart To Ride Autonomous

Photo credit: Waymo

Waymo, the Alphabet/Google owned business, is making waves in the autonomous arena creating self-driving vehicles. Their growth has been noticed as Waymo has announced a partnership with Walmart. The goal for both companies is to enhance Walmart customers with a new ability to shop without having to deal with the hassles of driving. Uber and Lyft watch out, there’s a new choice people have when it comes to catching a ride.

Way back in 2016, Waymo partnered with Chrysler to create their testing fleet of autonomous vehicles with Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid models. Waymo has grown their self-driving Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid fleet from 100 units back in May 2016, to 600 in 2017, and before realizing it, the technology and product was ready to fully expand. In 2018, Waymo placed an order to Chrysler for 62,000 Pacifica Hybrid models.

The Future Is Here

In November 2017, Waymo began putting their self-driving minivan on public roads (without a single person inside the vehicle!) and tests were successful. Now, Walmart is getting in on the action by helping Arizona, Phoenix to become the first testing arena to bring people to their stores through Waymo.

While Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and Waymo revealed their total financial exchange, there was an expected discount rate, since a single Chrysler Pacifica has a starting MSRP of $39,995 (Plus destination fee). Ordering 62,000 minivans? That’s another story. Nearly two and a half billion dollars is what that would cost; before taxes. But Waymo is more than excited to have their hands on the 2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid.

“We’ve tailored our partnerships to meet the top rider needs; in fact, the partnerships below represent eight of the top ten activities our riders do when they get in a Waymo,” Waymo said in a statement.

Waymo and Walmart Love the Pacifica

The 2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid can hold 8 passengers and provides a quality interior that will help Waymo keep customers happy with their product. This means Walmart will benefit by the hard work done thus far by both, Chrysler and Waymo, to have a reliable way to transport customers and provide them another option to get to stores. The Waymo commercial ride-hailing service is expected to begin in 2020 with Walmart paying for the testing.

“Our personal shoppers get to work meticulously picking customers’ orders based on their pickup times.Waymo does the rest! They transport customers to and from pickup, and all the while, those customers can text, nap, work … you name it!” said Tom Ward, vice president of e-commerce operations for Walmart, in a recent blog post.

Try the New 2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid For Yourself

We encourage people to check out the latest 2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid and upgrade to the “Family Car of the Year” according to Cars.com. Our friendly staff can help you go through our entire new vehicles and pre-owned vehicles, trucks and crossovers. Look no further than Kendall Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram for all of these wonderful safety features in our new 2018 Chrysler vehicles, ready to go for you! We’ll work with you for any trade ins, leasing, selling or buying with our finance department.

We hope you return when in need for any servicing is required. Our service department is open seven-days-a-week, just like our sales department, and can handle almost any servicing or vehicle repairs your vehicle should need. Find everything you’ll need to a wonderful customer experience with every visit to Kendall Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram.