Google’s self-driving division is officially nailing the coffin on its car-making ambitions, as it decided to retire the Firefly model test fleet and instead focus solely on the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid test vehicles.
We’re unsure if there’s a parallel to be drawn between the tiny little self-driving pods called “Firefly” and the homonymous Sci-Fi series by Joss Whedon that has gained a cult following as well as the Serenity motion picture, but we do know both were short-lived. Waymo – which until becoming its own company was Google’s self-driving project – has decided to retire the fleet of very cute driverless vehicles after using them since 2014. The pod cars – introduced three years ago – were used to test and demonstrate real-world autonomous car technology. While the company says they were never going to be used in the long-term, we’re reading the silver lining here and understanding the company’s strategy has changed since their inception.
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