Delphi self-drive car takes a road trip across USA

This driverless car completed a nine-day coast-to-coast road trip across the US, from San Fransisco to New York City driving through 15 states. The car is equipped with GPS, collision mitigation, integrated radar and camera systems, forward collision and lane departure warning. Based on these sensors, the SUV steers itself through traffic and brakes on its own.

Delphi put a human driver in the driver's seat during the drive to work out a few glitches like the car did not want to move into a crowded left lane and steered away from tractors and trailers by edging to one side of the road.

The drive was used by Delphi engineers to research and collect information that will help further advance active safety technology. According to Delphi, the team collected nearly three terabytes of data—about 30 per cent of all of the printed material in the Library of US Congress.

“Our vehicle performed remarkably well during this drive, exceeding our expectations,” said Jeff Owens, Delphi chief technology officer.  “The knowledge obtained from this trip will help optimise our existing active safety products and accelerate our future product development, which will allow us to deliver unsurpassed automotive grade technologies to our customers.” He added, "The car was scared of tractor trailers. The car edged to the left just a little bit when it would pass trucks, and that was an interesting observation."