Fiat Chrysler's Self-Driving Minivan

Credit: Waymo

There's been a lot of buzz about self-driving vehicles, or autonomous cars as the tech industry likes to call them. And this year’s auto show season is no exception. In a reveal at the Detroit International auto show on Monday, Google's spinoff auto tech company Waymo, premiered a plug & play autonomous system that would work in any vehicle. In this case it was the hybrid- electric Chrysler minivan, Pacifica. What's interesting about this to me is not only the self-driving technology coming to the common car but more importantly the fact that Fiat Chrysler was not debuting this on their own platform, but on Google's! While auto manufacturers have previously partnered with tech companies, this marks the first year a technology company has premiered a product on its own. Likewise, Fiat Chrysler introduced its self-driving cars at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this month. This is a key game changer in both marketing & the future of cars in general. Tech fleeced autos are such a big deal in the future of driving that they are willing to change what was an auto industry exclusive show into an auto tech show. The lines between each industry are coming down like never seen before. These are both exciting times and uncertain times. On one hand, I like the "Knight Rider" self-driving capability, yet on the other hand I can't help but wonder when my car will fly? (Not to mention will this really be safe enough for my family to ride in without incident?)