Delphi Automotive announced today that it will acquire autonomous vehicle technology company nuTonomy Inc. for $450 million.
By combining efforts with nuTonomy in Boston, Singapore, and other pilot cities around the world, Delphi will have 60 autonomous cars on the road across three continents by year-end, with the goal to further accelerate global fleet expansion and technology development, according to a release.
“Our mission has always been to radically improve the safety, efficiency, and accessibility of transportation worldwide,” nuTonomy co-founder and CEO Karl Iagnemma said in a release. “Joining forces with Delphi brings us one step closer to achieving our goal with a market-leading partner whose vision directly aligns with ours. Together we will set the global standard for excellence in autonomous driving technology.”
The acquisition of nuTonomy is the latest in a series of investments that Delphi has made in the mobility space, including the acquisition of autonomous driving software developer Ottomatika and data service companies Control-Tec and Movimento.
Delphi is also working to build a self-driving car by 2019 through a partnership with Mobileye, Tesla’s former supplier of the camera vision system used in its Autopilot self-driving efforts.
Tesla Elon CEO Musk commented about the acquisition news on Twitter in a way that did not come across as supportive. He offered one word: “Groan”.
Groan
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 24, 2017