Intel's efforts to market self-driving car technology got a boost Wednesday when Fiat Chrysler joined an existing partnership between Intel and BMW.

The companies are developing a common platform for autonomous driving technology, and plan to have 40 test vehicles running by the end of this year. They aim to put fully autonomous vehicles into production by 2021.

With Intel's core PC market on the wane, the chipmaker is counting on the data-intensive autonomous driving market to fill some of that gap. It spent $15.3 billion this year to buy a small Israeli company called Mobileye, which has promising technology for autonomous vehicles.

-- Mike Rogoway; twitter: @rogoway; 503-294-7699