Aptiv (formerly Delphi) CEO Kevin Clark has said that big falls in driverless car costs lay ahead, potentially taking the cost of a driverless stack as low as USD5,000 by 2025.
In remarks reported by Reuters, he said that newly formed Aptiv wants to help automakers rethink the way vehicles are engineered and built and make money on the data generated by autonomous electric vehicles.
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Under the new split of what was Delphi, Aptiv will concentrate on emerging driverless technologies while ‘Delphi Technologies’ continues its powertrain products business.
Reuters noted that current estimates for the cost of a self-driving hardware and software package range from US$70,000-USD150,000. Clark told the news agency that “the cost of that autonomous driving stack by 2025 will come down to about USD$5,000 because of technology developments and volume.”
He added that a large part of the opportunity for removing cost comes as OEMs working with suppliers such as Aptiv re-engineer their basic vehicle platforms specifically to accommodate electric motors, batteries and self-driving sensors. That, he maintained, will entail fewer components, more software and better integration of connectivity and advanced safety technologies.
Clark also said that the basic engineering architecture of vehicles will need to be rethought over the next decade but also added that the high cost of driverless systems means the systems won’t make personal vehicles in scale before 2025. He sees the deployment in commercial applications first where fleet operators are better able to absorb high cost and have an economic incentive to do so.
