Delphi, Mobileye team up for Level 4 and 5 autonomous cars

by Abhinav Mohapatra

Gillingham, England-based auto parts manufacturer and supplier, Delphi in an effort to speed up automated driving solutions has teamed up with Mobileye that develops vision based driver assistance systems and specializes in machine learning focused on the automotive domain. The companies have announced the partnership to join automotive companies like Ford, BMW and Tesla in driving towards a driverless car experience. It is said, that the joint efforts will see a solution, ready for market to car makers by 2019. With the collaboration, both Delphi and Mobileye, plan to build a driving platform, which they’re calling a, SAE (initially established as the Society of Automotive Engineers) Level 4 or 5 automated driving solution that presumably means the vehicle will operate without any kind of driver involvement. It claims to include a level of performance and functional safety required for rapid integration into diverse vehicle platforms for customers over the globe. Reportedly, the technology is built on key technologies from each company; the solution include Mobileye’s EyeQ 4/5 System on a Chip (SoC) with sensor signal processing, fusion, world view generation and Road Experience Management (REM) system, which will be used for real time mapping and vehicle localization. Delphi also claims to incorporate automated driving software algorithms from its Ottomatika acquisition, which include the Path and Motion Planning features, and Delphi’s Multi-Domain Controller (MDC) with the full camera, radar and LiDAR suite. Additionally, teams from both companies will develop the next generation of sensor fusion technology. This module combines Ottomatika’s driving behavior modeling integrated with Mobileye’s machine learning. Kevin Clark, President and CEO, Delphi, said:
“This partnership will allow us to give our customers an increased level of automated capabilities faster and more cost effectively. 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. This is a win-win for both companies and our customers.”
  However, the Mobileye and Delphi partnership dates back to 2002. Amnon Shashua, Mobileye Chairman and Chief Technology Officer, said:
“The relationship started with the implementation of what was one of the most advanced active safety systems of the time. Our long history together is key to the success of this ambitious endeavor. Our partnership with Delphi will accelerate the time to market and enable customers to adopt Level 4/5 automation without the need for huge capital investments, thereby creating a formidable advantage for them.”
Mobileye which is headquartered in Jerusalem, uses vision algorithms and artificial vision to provide collision avoidance technology which is able to analyze potential dangerous scenarios, in real time, and alerts drivers with a quick evaluation based on its analysis. It also vouches to offer collision avoidance technology as its vehicle safety solutions automotive manufacturers including Ford, GM, Chrysler, BMW, Volvo, Hyundai and Honda. In fact, earlier in July, BMW Group, Intel and Mobileye came together to create self-driving vehicles as basis for new mobility services in urban environments. The synergy also promised production and deployment by 2021. It also formed an alliance with Volkswagen which called camera-based real-time image processing technology and digitalized maps as its focus to further autonomous driving initiatives. While Delphi debuted similar kind of service with the co-operation of Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) in rolling out a fleet of fully autonomous vehicles and developing a cloud-based mobility-on-demand software (AMoD) suite in early August. The Mobileye team also cited various undertakings on their twitter page: