What's going on?

Google-parent Alphabet and Italian-American carmaker Fiat Chrysler announced they�d signed an exclusive deal to go on a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of… developing self-driving commercial vehicles together.

What does this mean?

Having worked with Fiat back in 2016, Alphabet thinks the carmaker is the right partner to help it make a name for itself in the self-driving commercial vehicle market. The tech giant will start by working to introduce autonomous driving technology � developed by its Waymo business � into Fiat�s Ram ProMaster van, and then they’ll work together exclusively on �Level 4� autonomous vehicles, which require a driver to be present but not active.


Waymo has been busy: last month it announced it�d be teaming up with Sweden�s Volvo to develop self-driving electric vehicles, potentially for ride-hailers like Lyft to use. And if anyone�s a safe pair of hands, it�s Volvo…

Why should I care?

For markets: Shoot for the moon.

Of the 29 investment analysts who cover Alphabet�s stock, 28 of them are recommending that investors buy at the moment. But even the most optimistic don�t think the company�s �other bets� � including AI firm DeepMind, healthcare organization Verily, and, yup, Waymo � make any difference to its overall valuation (tweet this). So if long-term investors do their homework, they might find Waymo could become a sustainable business that propels Alphabet�s value far beyond its current $1 trillion in years to come.

The bigger picture: Cars, cars, cars.

The 290% rise of Tesla�s shares this year has some investors counting the days until the electric carmaker joins the S&P 500, America�s biggest stock market index. To qualify, the company needed to report four consecutive quarters of profit � and it just did exactly that late on Wednesday. Its investors should be very pleased indeed: investment funds that track companies in the S&P 500 may now be forced to buy its shares, likely boosting its stock even more.