Delphi to offer driverless ride-hailing service in US, Europe
Delphi automotive will offer its self-driving ride-hailing service in a US and European pilot programme, following the launch of its Singaporean pilot next year. Delphi has identified cities including Pittsburgh, Boston, London and Luxembourg as the most likely locations for the service. The vehicles will be monitored by staff members until 2019, when human monitors will be removed, with the company aiming to launch the service commercially by 2022. The Singapore pilot will act as a shuttle service for mass transit stations. Obstacle detection software will be provided by Mobileye NV, with lidar units by Quanergy, computer chips by Intel and software by Ottomatika.

This month, Delphi Automotive plans to name a U.S. city as well as one in Europe to launch an Uber-style ride-hailing service with self-driving vehicles.

The supplier has previously identified Boston, Pittsburgh, London and Luxembourg as leading candidates, and spokesman Scott Fosgard confirmed last week that Delphi likely will announce its decision in December.

The U.S. and European pilot programs will be similar to a service Delphi plans to launch next year in Singapore, where six self-driving vehicles will shuttle passengers to and from mass transit stations. Delphi has not yet announced which model it plans to use for the Singapore fleet.

For the first two years of operation, Delphi will assign a staff member to each vehicle to monitor its performance in traffic. In 2019, Delphi will remove those monitors, and by 2022 the company hopes to launch the driverless service commercially.

Service in the U.S. and Europe will be similar to the Singapore pilot, according to Glen De Vos, vice president of Delphi's services business unit.

Over the past year or so, Delphi has assembled a stable of partners to design a technology package for driverless vehicles.

Mobileye NV will provide obstacle detection software, and Quanergy Systems Inc. will develop a lidar unit. Intel Corp. will produce the computer chip that decides when to steer, brake or accelerate. Ottomatika Inc., which Delphi acquired last year, will write the software for Intel's chip. The vehicles will have Delphi-produced radar and cameras.

Delphi wants the U.S., European and Asian ride-hailing programs to test that new technology working together.

"It allows us to get real-world experience and really understand the systems in a controlled environment," De Vos said during a Nov. 28 technology presentation in Pittsburgh. "And we are reducing the risk to other drivers on the road."

Delphi does not yet have a contract to produce the technology for a driverless car. But its three pilot programs could prove to be a useful technology showcase.

Ride-hailing services are likely early adopters because their biggest operational expense is the driver. That's why Uber is preparing to launch its own test of driverless cars in Pittsburgh with a fleet of Volvos.

Suppliers and automakers believe ride-hailing services, as opposed to individual car owners, offer a good fit for early driverless car technologies. The fleets can stay within a selected neighborhood that has been scouted in advance, and fleet operators can employ trained drivers to the vehicles as backup. Fleet operators can perform daily maintenance on the vehicles, and a central control center can monitor their activity.

It may be a while before individual motorists get to own fully autonomous vehicles, some proponents believe.

"We are not really targeting these vehicles for consumers right away," said Dan Galves, Mobileye's vice president of communications. "The economics [of ride-hailing] change a lot if you can take the driver out of the equation. These have a big motivation to deploy these vehicles."