Technology
A nuTonomy spokesperson also said he “anticipates the company will continue to grow”, instead of seeing job cuts for its Singapore operations.
A self-driving car being developed by nuTonomy, a company creating software for autonomous vehicles, is guided down a street near their offices in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., June 2, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo
SINGAPORE: A day after autonomous driving start-up nuTonomy was acquired by automotive equipment maker Delphi for US$400 million, the company said that Singapore remains a “critical piece” of autonomous driving capability development for the combined entity.
A company spokesperson told Channel NewsAsia in an email on Wednesday (Oct 25) that the sale to UK-headquartered Delphi was fundamentally about “achieving scale and accelerating the development of autonomous driving and automated mobility on demand (AMOD)”.
Co-founder and CEO Karl Iagnemma said in the press release announcing the transaction on Tuesday that the start-up’s mission has always been to improve the safety, efficiency and accessibility of transportation worldwide, and that joining Delphi brings them one step closer to doing so.
The company will continue to be based in Boston, and it also has offices in Santa Monica and Singapore.
Asked if there will be job cuts here as a result of the acquisition, the nuTonomy spokesperson said he “anticipates the company will continue to grow, creating more demand for robotics and artificial intelligence experts and software engineers”.
As for the agreements both companies signed with the Land Transport Authority (LTA), the spokesperson said they will “begin combining their existing demonstration and pilot programmes”.
In August last year, LTA announced that nuTonomy is working to launch an AMOD service with a fleet of vehicles here in 2018, while Delphi said it aimed to trial and operationalise a fleet of five shared self-driving vehicles with the potential to scale up the service to serve an entire town.
“This deal is meant to accelerate the development and commercialisation of autonomous driving and AMOD in Singapore and cities around the world,” the spokesperson said.
With completion of the deal, Delphi will have autonomous driving operations in Boston, Pittsburgh, Santa Monica, Silicon Valley and Singapore.
The company is competing with the likes of former Google car unit Waymo and Uber, among others.
