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Jaguar CEO Says Nobody Can Go It Alone in Autonomous Driving

Autonomous driving has come under fire recently after a test car from Uber . hit and killed a pedestrian last month.

Jaguar CEO Says Nobody Can Go It Alone in Autonomous Driving
Ralf Speth, chief executive officer of Jaguar Land Rover Plc, speaks during an event in New York, U.S. (Photographer: Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Jaguar Land Rover, which is teaming up with Waymo to develop autonomous vehicles, is testing the technology predominantly in the U.K. and sharpening efforts to make the roads safer with such cars, Chief Executive Officer Ralf Speth said.

While automobiles currently have a lot of driver assistance built in, they don’t offer fully autonomous-drive features, he said, adding governments, researchers and the industry need to collaborate across sectors to develop a safe technology.

Jaguar CEO Says Nobody Can Go It Alone in Autonomous Driving

“At the very moment, nobody can offer autonomous drive,” he told Rishaad Salamat in a Bloomberg Television interview from the Beijing auto show on Wednesday. “Nobody can do it on their own.”

Autonomous driving has come under fire recently after a test car from Uber Technologies Inc. hit and killed a pedestrian last month, sparking a debate on the safety of the technology on open roads. Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, which has racked up the most autonomous test miles on roads, said last month that it will add as many as 20,000 of Jaguar’s I-Pace electric SUVs starting in 2020 to its proposed ride-hailing taxi service.

Waymo is planning to purchase the Jaguar I-Pace vehicles, which sell for $69,500 each, placing the deal at more than $1.3 billion.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Tian Ying in Beijing at ytian@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anand Krishnamoorthy at anandk@bloomberg.net, Sam Nagarajan

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.

With assistance from Tian Ying