Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is celebrating the production launch of the 2017 Chrysler Pacifica at Windsor Assembly Plant with a special guest.
CEO Sergio Marchionne joined Unifor President Jerry Dias and plant employees to tour the facility on Friday.
FCA US spent more than $2.6 billion on the minivan program, which included significant upgrades to the Windsor plant to retool it for production of the all-new minivan architecture.
Officials say the new Pacifica will be available in Canada in the next few weeks.
During today’s visit, Marchionne answered questions about the self-driving Pacifica.
Earlier this week, FCA announced a partnership with Google to develop a self-driving minivan.
Media asked if there was any chance the California-based technology could be test-driven in Windsor.
“I will advocate for it, but I make no promises,” said Marchionne.
Marchionne believes self-driving vehicles will be available in the next five years, saying that’s why they cannot afford to ignore the technology.
Marchionne recently road in one of the vehicles at Google’s California headquarters and he says he felt very comfortable.
FCA has inked a deal with Google to build up to 100 self-driving vans.
Marchionne says this doesn’t mean goggle is becoming an automaker.
“It’s out engineers sitting down with their engineers,” says Marchionne.
Marchionne says if this idea becomes something more, as in a production-ready vehicle it will ultimately be built in Windsor.
More than 10 million minivans have rolled off the Windsor assembly line since it started building the ultimate family vehicle in 1983.
