Mobileye and Delphi team up aims for autonomous driving system by 2019
Delphi and Mobileye have announced a partnership that will see the two attempt to make a splash in the autonomous driving sector. Though both companies have already made a name for themselves when it comes to autonomous driving, they won't be developing an self-driving vehicle like so many other manufacturers out there. Instead, the focus of Delphi and Mobileye will be on developing a turnkey autonomous driving system their carmaker customers will be able to implement in their vehicles.
Delphi and Mobileye call this new partnership ambitious, and that certainly seems to be the right word for it, as they plan to have the system available for purchase by 2019. That means their system will be available before a fair number of automakers have their autonomous cars on the road, perhaps allowing Delphi and Mobileye the opportunity to capture an audience before self-driving cars become more common.
The two companies say that this will be a level 4/5 autonomous driving system under the standards laid down by the Society of Automotive Engineers, and that it will combine Mobileye's computer vision and mapping systems with Delphi's automated driving algorithms. The new system will be on display at CES 2017 too, so we won't have to wait that long to get our first look at it.
One advantage of Delphi and Mobileye's system is that it will allow automakers the ability to offer self-driving cars without the huge capital requirement that goes into developing a new platform, which is a pretty exciting prospect for anyone who welcomes a future packed with self-driving cars.
The two companies say another advantage of teaming up is that they'll be able to bring this new platform to market faster than if either had produced one separately, so they may just end up accelerating the rate at which autonomous vehicles begin dotting the roadways.
Of course, we'll have to wait and see how Mobileye and Delphi can influence the industry with their new team up, so stay tuned.