Carmakers, suppliers team up to share costs of self-driving vehicles

Las Vegas

AUTOMOTIVE suppliers and carmakers are expanding alliances to develop self-driving technology that can serve multiple carmakers, as the race to put such vehicles on the road separates companies that can go it alone from those that need help sharing the financial and technical burdens.

While some companies, such as Tesla Motors, General Motors and Ford Motor, are trying to develop proprietary driverless systems, a larger group of carmakers appears to have decided it makes more sense to develop self-driving technology in collaboration with suppliers - as many other features such as anti-lock brakes or radar-enabled cruise control already are.

"What's going on in the industry right now is like a hyper version of musical chairs - and the music is still playing," said Gill Pratt, chief executive officer of Toyota Research…