Dec. 6, 2017—The auto parts supplier Delphi Automotive—currently in the process of changing its name to “Aptiv Inc”—is aiming to reduce the costs of self-driving cars by over 90 percent by 2025, according to Clean Technica.
The plan is to cut self-driving car costs down to only around $5,000 or so within 7–8 years.
In relation to this goal, the name change to Aptiv Inc., represents a clear statement of commitment. The firm is essentially banking its future on the eventual large-scale rollout of cheap self-driving cars.
The plan is apparently to “help automakers rethink the way vehicles are engineered and built and make money on the data generated by autonomous electric vehicles,” as explained by Reuters.
“While current estimates for the cost of a self-driving hardware and software package range from $70,000 to $150,000, ‘the cost of that autonomous driving stack by 2025 will come down to about $5,000 because of technology developments and (higher) volume,’" Delphi CEO, Kevin Clark said in an interview.
Delphi paid around $450 million just a few months back to acquire the self-driving car firm nuTonomy—a further clear statement of commitment to the tech and future market.
Notably, the CEO doesn’t expect fully self-driving systems to make it to the consumer car market (in high volumes) until at least 2025, owing to high system costs. The commercial market, on the other hand, is going to be very interested regardless of high costs.
