Delphi’s self-driving car sets off on coast-to-coast drive

Component major Delphi Automotive has begun its technology test with an autonomous driving car. A team of engineers and the Delphi Drive autonomous driving vehicle are finally on the road to cross the country in the next 10 days. They will travel over 3,500 miles / 5,600 kilometres and end in New York City, making this America’s first and longest coast-to-coast drive by an automated vehicle.

The journey started out on March 22, 2015 at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. This trip is designed to test and demonstrate Delphi’s technology capabilities. During the cross-country trek, the vehicle will be challenged under a variety of driving conditions from changing weather and terrain to potential road hazards – things that could never truly be tested in a lab.

“Delphi had great success testing its car in California and on the streets of Las Vegas,” said Jeff Owens, Delphi’s chief technology officer. “Now it’s time to put our vehicle to the ultimate test by broadening the range of driving conditions. This drive will help us collect invaluable data in our quest to deliver the best automotive grade technologies on the market.”    

The vehicle, which made its debut at CES 2015, is well equipped with four short-range radars, three vision-based cameras, six lidars, a localisation system, intelligent software algorithms and a full suite of Advanced Drive Assistance Systems. 

Delphi says its active safety technologies enable the vehicle to instantaneously make complex decisions, like stopping and then proceeding at a four-way stop, timing a highway merge or calculating the safest manoeuvre around a bicyclist on a city street. Many of these driving scenarios have been a limitation for much of the current technology on the market today.