Of the players involved in Pittsburgh’s autonomous vehicles landscape, United Kingdom-based technology company Delphi remains relatively unnoticed — but a new, high-profile partnership could change that.
Detroit, Mich.-based Delphi, which has been testing autonomous Audi SUVs in Pittsburgh, announced a partnership with BMW, Intel and Mobileye on Tuesday morning.
Delphi joins a partnership that BMW, Intel and Mobileye originally established in July 2016, working to create an autonomous driving platform that any original equipment manufacturer could adopt. Delphi will aid in systems integration to ensure the platform is sound and ready for deployment.
“This is not just a platform for BMW,” said Delphi’s Chief Technology Officer Glenn De Vos. “It’s a platform for the market.”
The partners plan to begin production of the automated vehicle systems by 2021, aligning with Delphi’s separate initiative alongside Mobileye to create a turnkey model for autonomous driving by 2019.
Mr. De Vos said he believes companies working on closed autonomous systems will struggle. Scaling out a platform to original equipment manufacturers could be more efficient than developing separate autonomous systems from scratch, he said.
The cooperation follows a rising trend of partnerships between auto manufacturers and tech companies.
In February, Ford announced it would invest $1 billion over five years into Argo AI, a Pittsburgh-based artificial intelligence startup that is helping build the brain for Ford’s self-driving cars.
According to a 2017 analysis by market research firm Navigant, Ford ranked first in an overall leaderboard on automated driving systems. Eighteen companies were included in the study, and established car companies — along with companies partnered with them — tended to rank highly.
BMW ranked sixth in the leaderboard, with Delphi in ninth place. Both lead Uber, which ranked 16th.
BMW’s Richard Rau, vice president of sensors, control units and software, noted other automakers could officially join the partnership in the coming weeks.
Courtney Linder: clinder@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1707. Twitter: @LinderPG.
First Published: May 16, 2017, 1:47 p.m.
Updated: May 17, 2017, 1:48 a.m.