Autonomous cars are driving towards us at an alarming rate of knots. BMW and Ford both promise autonomous vehicles will be on the road by 2021, and towns are investing heavily in self-driving last-mile solutions. It's not just the big marques and cities trying to make this happen, though. Delphi and Mobileye have teamed up to bring a ready-to-run autonomous solution to market by 2019, with a demonstration set to take place at CES in Las Vegas next year.
Their names might not carry the same kudos as a Ford or BMW badge, but Delphi and Mobileye aren't new to the world of self-driving cars. Last year, a driverless Delphi Audi Q5 made a trip across the USA, and the company is experienced with vehicle-to-everything technology crucial to making widespread autonomy realistic.
Meanwhile, Mobileye chips are integrated into more than 3.3 million cars, and the company's systems are used in 237 unique car models.
The system for 2019 will make use of Delphi's sensor suite, which includes radars, LiDar and a combined camera/radar system called RACam. It will also supply the multi-domain controller, which takes information from the sensors and combines it with navigation data to decide things like when to stop and go.
On the other side of the partnership, Mobileye will contribute to real-time mapping and vehicle location. Making use of the company's EyeQ 4/5 SOC, the system is able to provide a detailed interpretation of camera data, using it to locate obstructions and plotting a drivable path around them. There will also be a Mobileye 360-degree camera system taking images from all angles and sending them to the multi-controller.
"This partnership will allow us to give our customers an increased level of automated capabilities faster and more cost effectively," says Kevin Clark, Delphi President and CEO."The collective expertise of our two organizations will accelerate the creation of new approaches and capabilities that would likely not have been possible working alone."
All things being equal, the companies want to have a turn-key solution ready to run by 2019, providing SAE Level 4 or 5 autonomy at a reasonable price. That means systems able to drive cars in most or all conditions without the need for any driver attention.
The system will be demonstrated at CES next year, in urban and highway environments.