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Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo has picked an idled American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. facility in Detroit as the site where it will equip vehicles made by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and Jaguar Land Rover Automotive with self-driving technology.

Uber Technologies Inc. has spent more than $1 billion on autonomous vehicle technology to compete with giants such as Alphabet Inc., Apple Inc. and General Motors Co.

Waymo on March 6 began selling the laser-mapping sensors used on its driverless vehicles to other companies — as long as the customers don’t compete with its core robotaxi business. The sensors, known as lidar, shoot lasers off objects to determine what is nearby.

LANSING, Mich. — Google self-driving car spinoff Waymo said Jan. 22 that it will bring a factory to Michigan, creating up to 400 jobs at what it describes as the world’s first plant “100%” dedicated to the mass production of autonomous vehicles.

Autonomous vehicle pioneer Anthony Levandowski has formed a new software company called Pronto. Its first aftermarket product, Copilot, provides camera-based self-driving technology for the Class 8 market.

Google’s Waymo, Uber and carmakers GM and Mercedes-Benz are among the companies working to put driverless vehicles in showrooms. That competition also should help lower prices that can reach $75,000 apiece for the sensors that scan a car’s surrounding environment so it knows how to drive itself.

Self-driving vehicles typically are described as a disruptive technology that will make traditional modes of public transportation obsolete, but a recent announcement by Chandler-based Waymo is challenging that narrative.

An automaker like General Motors Co. brings two advantages to the development of self-driving vehicles: knowledge of how to build a car and the factories to do it. Silicon Valley’s biggest entrants into autonomous vehicles, particularly Alphabet Inc., have legions of coders and piles of cash.

Gradient Ventures, an early-stage venture fund within Google, is leading a $6 million investment in a new company that’s building software to let humans control cars remotely.

Waymo is teaming up with Jaguar Land Rover on autonomous vehicles, its second major automaker partnership and a big boost for the nascent technology that has come under scrutiny recently.