Waymo says it plans to deploy up to 20,000 electric Jaguar SUVs in its planned self-driving taxi service starting in 2020, a confident step forward even as questions swirl about the future of autonomous cars in the wake of a fatal pedestrian accident involving a competitor’s vehicle.
The former self-driving car unit of Alphabet’s Google said it will work with Britain’s Jaguar Land Rover to design and engineer self-driving versions of Jaguar’s new battery-powered I-Pace, which was launched earlier this month. On-road testing will begin later this year, and the companies said up to 20,000 I-Paces will join Waymo’s driverless fleet within the first two years of production, potentially providing one million rides per day by 2022.
