Delphi (DLPH, Financial) is driving an autonomous car from San Francisco to New York, spanning 3,500 miles across the country, in a coast-to-coast test-drive which will be the longest automated drive ever attempted in North America.
Delphi Automotive PLC is a global supplier of technologies for the automotive and commercial vehicle markets, headquartered in Gillingham, England. It is one of the world's largest automotive parts manufacturing company, with regional headquarters in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Shanghai, China; Bascharage, Luxembourg; and Troy, Michigan, U.S.
With approximately 161,000 employees around the world, the company operates 15 technical centres and 126 manufacturing sites spanning 32 countries.
The journey kicks off for the 3,500 mile road trip
The trip, designed to analyse and display Delphi’s technology capabilities, started out on March 22 at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and will end in time for the New York Auto Show.
A team of Delphi engineers will be traveling in a specially outfitted Audi (AUDVF, Financial) SQ5, equipped with special cameras, radar and software. The SUV will travel for six to eight hours each day and will be continuously checked by the team of engineers, who will be closely monitoring the car's performance. There will be one person always behind the wheel of the autonomous car, to ensure extra safety.
The vehicle is equipped with three Lidar (laser radar) in the front, and a vision camera mounted on the inside of the front windshield. Two more Lidar systems are incorporated into the rear bumper.
Delphi and Ottomatika, a company started by Carnegie Mellon University, jointly developed the software that interprets the data extracted from those systems and the algorithms that enable the car to make driving decisions.
Delphi's autonomous test car is built with advanced technology, which can make complex decisions instantaneously, like timing a highway merge, calculating the safest manoeuvre around a bicyclist on a city street, or stopping and proceeding at a four-way stop.
The SUV will travel from San Francisco to the New York City area starting March 22, and is supposed to arrive in New York around early April, to coincide with the New York Auto Show. Delphi requires no exemptions or state approvals to operate a self-driving car, with just a few states needing such waivers, and those are primarily focused on Level 4 cars under federal classification — fully autonomous vehicles that in theory wouldn't require a driver or even a steering wheel.
According to Delphi, this test drive will give the company the opportunity to collect a tremendous amount of data that will be very useful as the industry looks at various types of autonomous vehicles.
Delphi’s Road Ahead
According to Jeff Owens, Delphi's VP and chief technical officer, the development of autonomous car technology presents an enormous opportunity to Delphi and other auto suppliers.
The automotive industry has been fascinated by the potential for self-driving, or autonomous cars for decades now. While there has been a lot of advancement in the technology required to operate a semi-autonomous car, such as lane departure systems and adaptive cruise control, there is a lot of uncertainty about fully autonomous cars hitting the market anytime soon.
But Delphi is supposedly not perturbed about that since automakers are already working at a brisk pace in the development and deployment of technology, with the auto industry continuing to come up with innovative technology, which help improve the safety of cars.
Conclusion
In 2014, Delphi booked $1.4 billion in sales for sensors, cameras other active safety systems, and $3 billion over the earlier three years. The market for active safety technology is growing exponentially at 35% annually and Delphi's sales in this sector are rising at the rate of 54% annually.
The future at the moment looks bright for Delphi.
