One Step Closer to the Mainstream: Delphi and Transdev to Develop Driverless Cars

Delphi Automotive PLC has announced it is partnering with Transdev Group to develop on-demand driverless transportation systems, a deal that shows promise for autonomous development on a global scale.

Delphi has been creating self-driven cars since May through its partnership with mobileye, a company Intel is aquiring. Transdev is a Paris-based public transport service, one of the largest mobility network operations in the world. It boasts various types of transport, 85,000 employees, and 40,000 operating vehicles across 19 countries.

One Step Closer to the Mainstream: Delphi and Transdev to Develop Driverless Cars — *Image via Delphi*

The first stage of the partnership's plan is to launch a "first mile, last mile" service operating at a small distance from a campus to a train station, and then continue to grow based on findings. The service will begin later this year and will use two Zoe minicars in Normandy, and one shuttle bus in Saclay, Paris. The overall goal is to get the service up and running in a wide public market by 2019, and from these tests, they hope to garner more information about sensor fusion and intelligence.

Of this goal, Yann Leriche, chief performance officer at Transdev said:

We believe that autonomy will bring a lot of social benefits. Our mission is to leverage those benefits to provide attractive shared transportation options to our clients.

— Yann Leriche, Transdev Chief Performance Officer

The Delphi-Transdev partnership marks the second partnership announced this week that aims to get driverless systems up and running as soon as possible. Just yesterday, Lyft announced that it's working with nuTonomy to research and develop ways to improve passenger experience in self-driven cars. Not only that, but autonomous transportation is starting to be seen globally. The UK has invested $38 million into driverless cars. Canada is receiving a $33.7 million driverless R&D center from Ford. Australia is prioritizing development of self-driven vehicles.

These developments have consumers wondering which company will be the first to break into the mainstream.

Delphi and Transdev could quickly become the ones to complete this goal on a global scale. Delphi offers an advanced automated driving platform while Transdev is well known and has plenty of global partners including ones in Chile, Italy, Ireland, and Morocco. The resources that these companies have together indicate that this deal could mean a swift launch of on-demand driverless services into the mainstream in a user-safe, marketable way.