BMW, Intel and Mobileye bring Delphi in on their self-driving platform

BMW, Intel and Mobileye have a new partner in their previously announced initiative to co-develop an autonomous driving platform. Delphi is now a member of the group effort, which was announced first in July 2016, prior to Intel’s acquisition of Mobileye earlier this year.

Delphi will be providing key compute components for the system, and have already supplied a prototype of the platform they’ll eventually supply to the system to the collaborative team. They’ll work directly with Intel and Mobileye on sensor fusion and highly automated driving software.

Intel and Delphi were previously partnered up on autonomous tech, and the two brought their demonstration driverless vehicle to CES this year, where we got the chance to take a ride. The Audi, equipped with Delphi’s systems and sensors from partners, including Mobileye, handled busy Las Vegas streets with seeming ease. Same goes for a more recent drive at Intel’s new Autonomous Driving Garage in Silicon Valley, where the same Delphi car was providing test rides with updated versions of its software. BMW also recently started fielding its latest highly automated test vehicles, one of which made its U.S. debut at the same Intel Garage opening event.

The BMW, Intel and Mobileye group has set 2021 as their target date for bringing an automated driving platform into production. Their aim is to build a platform that can be used not only for BMW vehicles, but also by other automakers and also automotive systems developers.

Delphi will be doing a lot with integration of the technologies provided by the other partners in the mix, as well as potentially supplying some additional hardware, the companies say, including sensors. The longtime auto industry supplier, which spun out from GM in 1999, announced earlier this month that it would be spinning out its own powertrain division into a separate company from the unit focused on autonomy and EVs.