Delphi wants to take autonomous driving to the next level and just announced a pilot program to test an on-demand self-driving taxi service in Singapore next year.
The UK-based automotive technology parts supplier announced its ambitious plans on Monday, Aug. 1, noting that it will start its pilot program with a small test fleet of self-driving cars.
The fully autonomous taxis will drive passengers around a city district in Singapore, marking one of the first real-world tests of on-demand self-driving car rides. Delphi teamed up with the Singapore Land Transit Authority (LTA) for this project, which could prove to be the fastest route toward making this technology viable from a commercial point of view.
"We are honored to partner with the Singapore LTA on advancing innovative mobility systems, which will put Singapore at the forefront of autonomous vehicle adoption," says Kevin Clark, Delphi president and CEO. "This is a great recognition of Delphi's leadership in advanced safety technologies, automated software, systems integration, as well as our ability to drive these mobility solutions forward for our customers."
Taking a cab in a dense urban area can be quite expensive, reaching up to $3 or $4 per mile, but Delphi VP of engineering, Glen DeVos, believes the company could lower the cost to roughly $0.90 per mile with a self-driving taxi.
The autonomous vehicles will still require human drivers at first, so they could take over if the self-driving piloting system fails. Nevertheless, Delphi plans to remove drivers from the equation by 2019 or 2020.
Looking further ahead, the Singapore LTA plans to have a regularly operating self-driving taxi service in place by 2022. Delphi plans to deploy similar pilot programs in Europe and North America as well, potentially selecting a U.S. site as soon as this year.
The company will kick off the pilot program with a fleet of Audi cars packed with automated driving technology and mapping systems, but plans to add electric vehicles down the line.
An increasing number of companies are boosting their efforts to deploy more electric vehicles and make progress in the autonomous driving space, and things are looking up.
Self-driving technology, however, is still quite controversial, especially after the fatal Tesla car crash that occurred while the car was running on Autopilot. More research and testing is necessary, but major pilot programs such as Delphi's mark important milestones in this journey.
Delphi is also collaborating with other companies such as Mobileye to develop the necessary sensor systems that would power vehicles to operate autonomously. The Singapore LTA will supply infrastructure so that self-driving vehicles can roam the streets safely.
