Honda in talks with Google's Waymo on self-drive tech

CHICAGO – Honda Motor Co. said Wednesday it is talking to Waymo, the autonomous driving unit of Google parent Alphabet Inc., to try to strike a deal that would put its self-driving technology into some of the Japanese automaker's cars. Both companies stressed that at this point the talks are about research, rather than full-production vehicles. If all goes well, Honda may provide Waymo with vehicles that are modified to run the self-driving system, and those cars would join the existing Waymo fleet currently being tested in four U.S. cities. Discussions with Honda underscore that Waymo wants to develop the brains behind self-driving vehicle technology rather than build the cars that use it. The talks also show that Waymo, the new name of Google's self-driving car project, is eager to work with more car companies as it races to rack up test miles with its autonomous-drive systems and prepare it for commercialization. "For companies like Apple and Google, it makes more sense to supply the technology than to get into the car business, which is capital intensive and highly regulated," said Michelle Krebs, an analyst at Cox Automotive's Autotrader.com.