Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Alphabet Inc, said on Monday it signed a multi-year agreement with Avis Budget Group Inc for the car rental firm to manage its growing fleet of autonomous vehicles, sparking a surge in Avis Budget's stock. A Bloomberg report on Monday that Apple was using vehicles supplied by rival rental car company Hertz Global Holdings to test its self-driving car technology prompted a surge in that company's shares. Also on Monday, General Motors chief financial officer Chuck Stevens told analysts during a conference call that the automaker has "done a lot of thinking" about how to manage its growing fleet of self-driving vehicles. GM has a large network of franchised dealers that could provide fleet management services, as well as an alliance with Lyft and its own Maven car-sharing unit. Waymo has said it plans to expand its fleet of Chrysler minivans to about 600 vehicles.

Source: CBC News June 26, 2017 21:11 UTC