Parts suppliers Mobileye NV and Delphi Automotive Plc are teaming up to develop a self-driving system for carmakers that lack funding to develop the technology on their own.
Teams from both companies will develop “the next generation” of human-like driving, they said in a statement. The companies will invest several hundred million dollars in the project, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Automakers and technology companies are scrambling for partnerships to compete in self-driving technology with Alphabet Inc.’s Google, which has already clocked 1.8 million miles of public road tests. Uber Technologies Inc. last week announced a $300 million development deal with Volvo AB. Ford Motor Co. is working with China’s Baidu Inc. BMW AG is teaming up with Mobileye and Intel Corp.
Delphi and Mobileye’s proposal would offer a platform for carmakers who don’t want to invest in their own tie-up.
Delphi and Mobileye say their system will draw on their existing technology, which includes sensor signal processing and real-time road mapping. They plan to demonstrate the project next year and hope to have it ready for production by 2019, the companies said. That would be two years before the 2021 target set by Ford, BMW and Uber.
“This partnership will allow us to give our customers an increased level of automated capabilities faster and more cost-effectively,” Delphi CEO Kevin Clark said.
By Charlotte Ryan
