13 ms·

Delphi buys self-driving car startup Nutonomy for $400M

78 points by edshiro 9y ago

romanovcode 9y ago
I read the article and still don't get what Delphi does, I'm pretty sure they are not talking about programming language tho :)
- martinshen 9y ago
  Delphi is one of the biggest Tier-1 automotive suppliers. They effectively supply parts, components and software to major auto manufacturers. Other Tier 1s: Bosch, Magna, Continental, Denso etc.
- csours 9y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi_Automotive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi_Automotive One point of interest is that Delphi was previously the internal supplier organization for GM, spun off in the 90's. > Nutonomy’s partnerships with Lyft, Groupe PSA and others will continue and the company will work in parallel with Delphi from its home base in Boston GM also has a partnership with Lyft, and Google just invested in Lyft as well. If Lyft were a person, one might describe them as promiscuous.
anilshanbhag 9y ago
Nutonomy founder Karl gave a talk at MIT and one of the things that surprised me was that they used very little machine learning. Most the work is done using a pre defined route map and the rrt star algorithm for making local decisions.
- isatty 9y ago
  That's actually a good thing - I've done a fair amount of work on autonomous robots (not land) and I'd say that the AI/Machine Learning word is thrown about a lot for no reason. Many of their challenges can be solved with tried and proven algorithms like rrt star. My personal opinion is that they're a autonomous car company not a research lab, so the focus is indeed correct.
- kajecounterhack 9y ago
  Most teams use ml heavily for perception but not necessarily for other things. You need explainability when it comes to safety, and maps are needed no matter what if you want your car to get around.
- bobsil1 9y ago
  The opposite of Drive.ai and Nvidia approaches (end-to-end deep learning).
- gumby 9y ago
  That's true of all the autonomous vehicle projects: the planners, etc are all written by hand. The ML is for "image" processing (I say "image" because it's object extraction from multiple sensors, in most cases including LIDAR).
  - sjg007 9y ago
    and those outputs probably map into a bayesian network to make decisions.
karpodiem 9y ago
This was an inside deal. Looking at the partners page for Fontinalis (VC firm), you've got Bill Ford Jr. and Jr. Jr. All of their other investments are unremarkable. I work for one of the big three - this autonomous stuff is way, way further out that what anyone is saying. I can't put a year on it because markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay liquid but it's all a head fake/game by upper management, who have finally found the Silicon Valley playbook of making wild ass promises now they that they've largely shed their pension obligations (my Dad, a slightly below classified level engineer at GM, will be taking the cash buyout instead of pension. Who can trust GM at this point? They've gone bankrupt before). Big Three company with that's poised to actually make real profits? FCA. New Wrangler/Grand Cherokee/Ram/Wagoneer/Grand Wagoneer in the next 24 months. Today, those vehicles make the lion share of profits and its not even close. And all of those vehicle redesigns will have mild hybrids for their launch, as a hedge against oil going up. FCA improving quality by going upmarket/simply charging more. Dealer model isn't ideal, but that will change over time.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- jfoster 9y ago
  What do you make of Waymo's Early Rider programme? https://waymo.com/apply/ https://waymo.com/apply/
  - karpodiem 9y ago
    I'd like to see a Waymo Pacifica going north on I-75 the morning after we get 6-8 inches of snow. To which someone on HN will respond - 'well it's dangerous to be driving during that time anyway.' Well, yes - but people still need to get to places (hospitals). And I've yet to see regulation under what situations autonomous vehicles can and cannot operate. And the fact that hasn't been addressed yet in any legal manner/you're not seeing cars available with it on a lot other than Tesla (who is playing with fire without LIDAR) tells you where this is at. Not saying it shouldn't be worked on/this isn't coming, but we've got a ways to go with this yet. @markbspiegel and some of the other Tesla bears (read: those with large short positions) have documented the NHTSA cases that have been filed against Tesla.
mayank 9y ago
Anyone know the context behind Elon Musk’s “groan” tweet about this acquisition: https://twitter.com/verge/status/922828400439504897 https://twitter.com/verge/status/922828400439504897
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- discordianfish 9y ago
  Maybe because a acquisitions in this phase is rarely a success signal. It's hard to innovate now that they aren't independent anymore.
mjkunc 9y ago
I honestly thought Delphi went out of business years ago.

78 points by edshiro 9y ago

I read the article and still don't get what Delphi does, I'm pretty sure they are not talking about programming language tho :)

martinshen 9y ago
Delphi is one of the biggest Tier-1 automotive suppliers. They effectively supply parts, components and software to major auto manufacturers. Other Tier 1s: Bosch, Magna, Continental, Denso etc.
csours 9y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi_Automotive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi_Automotive One point of interest is that Delphi was previously the internal supplier organization for GM, spun off in the 90's. > Nutonomy’s partnerships with Lyft, Groupe PSA and others will continue and the company will work in parallel with Delphi from its home base in Boston GM also has a partnership with Lyft, and Google just invested in Lyft as well. If Lyft were a person, one might describe them as promiscuous.

anilshanbhag 9y ago

Nutonomy founder Karl gave a talk at MIT and one of the things that surprised me was that they used very little machine learning. Most the work is done using a pre defined route map and the rrt star algorithm for making local decisions.

isatty 9y ago
That's actually a good thing - I've done a fair amount of work on autonomous robots (not land) and I'd say that the AI/Machine Learning word is thrown about a lot for no reason. Many of their challenges can be solved with tried and proven algorithms like rrt star. My personal opinion is that they're a autonomous car company not a research lab, so the focus is indeed correct.
kajecounterhack 9y ago
Most teams use ml heavily for perception but not necessarily for other things. You need explainability when it comes to safety, and maps are needed no matter what if you want your car to get around.
bobsil1 9y ago
The opposite of Drive.ai and Nvidia approaches (end-to-end deep learning).
gumby 9y ago
That's true of all the autonomous vehicle projects: the planners, etc are all written by hand. The ML is for "image" processing (I say "image" because it's object extraction from multiple sensors, in most cases including LIDAR).
- sjg007 9y ago
  and those outputs probably map into a bayesian network to make decisions.

karpodiem 9y ago

This was an inside deal. Looking at the partners page for Fontinalis (VC firm), you've got Bill Ford Jr. and Jr. Jr. All of their other investments are unremarkable. I work for one of the big three - this autonomous stuff is way, way further out that what anyone is saying. I can't put a year on it because markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay liquid but it's all a head fake/game by upper management, who have finally found the Silicon Valley playbook of making wild ass promises now they that they've largely shed their pension obligations (my Dad, a slightly below classified level engineer at GM, will be taking the cash buyout instead of pension. Who can trust GM at this point? They've gone bankrupt before). Big Three company with that's poised to actually make real profits? FCA. New Wrangler/Grand Cherokee/Ram/Wagoneer/Grand Wagoneer in the next 24 months. Today, those vehicles make the lion share of profits and its not even close. And all of those vehicle redesigns will have mild hybrids for their launch, as a hedge against oil going up. FCA improving quality by going upmarket/simply charging more. Dealer model isn't ideal, but that will change over time.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
jfoster 9y ago
What do you make of Waymo's Early Rider programme? https://waymo.com/apply/ https://waymo.com/apply/
- karpodiem 9y ago
  I'd like to see a Waymo Pacifica going north on I-75 the morning after we get 6-8 inches of snow. To which someone on HN will respond - 'well it's dangerous to be driving during that time anyway.' Well, yes - but people still need to get to places (hospitals). And I've yet to see regulation under what situations autonomous vehicles can and cannot operate. And the fact that hasn't been addressed yet in any legal manner/you're not seeing cars available with it on a lot other than Tesla (who is playing with fire without LIDAR) tells you where this is at. Not saying it shouldn't be worked on/this isn't coming, but we've got a ways to go with this yet. @markbspiegel and some of the other Tesla bears (read: those with large short positions) have documented the NHTSA cases that have been filed against Tesla.

mayank 9y ago

Anyone know the context behind Elon Musk’s “groan” tweet about this acquisition: https://twitter.com/verge/status/922828400439504897 https://twitter.com/verge/status/922828400439504897

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
discordianfish 9y ago
Maybe because a acquisitions in this phase is rarely a success signal. It's hard to innovate now that they aren't independent anymore.

mjkunc 9y ago

I honestly thought Delphi went out of business years ago.