Fiat Chrysler and Alphabet negotiating a mutually beneficial partnership

John Krafcik, CEO of Alphabet’s automotive car division, and CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles are in advanced stages of negotiations according to sources of The Wall Street Journal. Fiat Chrysler vehicles are not as loaded with the latest technologies as say Ford or Tesla. The partnership is bound to be useful as both companies stand to benefit from the other’s heritage. According to auto industry blog Autoextremist, the immediate goal of the talks is to introduce a driverless version of Fiat Chrysler’s Pacifica minivan. The move opens Alphabet up to Fiat Chrysler’s massive manufacturing capabilities, as well as a dealership network across the world. Fiat Chrysler will benefit from Alphabet’s long experience and proven expertise in developing autonomous vehicles, originally under Google’s experimental tech division, Moonshot. John Krafcik is an auto industry veteran, having worked before for Hyundai and Ford. He has apparently been in talks to partner with various automobile manufacturers, in an effort to make similar deals. The deal is likely to involve some kind of large scale sale of Alphabet’s driverless car technologies to Fiat Chrysler. Alphabet does not seem interested in getting into the automobile manufacturing business themselves, instead preferring to co operate with existing automotive companies to develop new automotive technologies. So far Alphabet’s automotive car technology has mostly been used in its home base test bed in California.