Your Car is a Network

"We lead, others follow.” That was the motto of my high school, O. Perry Walker, in New Orleans. I believed it then and I believe it now. Only now I apply it to Delphi. 

Leading in an industry as competitive as ours is not an easy task. You must take risks while ensuring quality and continuous delivery to your customers. Delphi has been the world leader in electrical architecture since I can remember. It has been historically a business of wires and connectors; components that are standardized. So with something that has been taken for granted, how do you get ahead and stay ahead? 

By thinking differently. 

Given the advances in technologies applied now and in all future aspects and angles of the car – we had to think differently. We had to rethink the car as a network. We stopped thinking about architecture as a wiring harness made of copper and plastic, but rather as a nervous system that moves massive amounts of data around your car at incredible speeds -- safely, seamlessly and securely. 

With all the talk about automated driving and advanced safety systems, infotainment systems and in-car WiFi, people don’t think about what it takes to make all of that happen. It’s the car’s nervous system. 

And that nervous system is about to get a lot more complex. By the year 2020, new cars will need 25 percent more connectors than those built in 2016 – as many as 350. What’s even more astounding – those same cars will need a 67 percent increase in cabling – up to 5,000 meters. What will these systems enable? 

Everything. 

Everything in that car – including exchanging 100,000 data messages per second. Think about that for a second. Your car. And every message, every piece of data, every signal has to be delivered flawlessly under all conditions. This is what it means to be automotive grade. 

Delphi has a truly unique advantage in the marketplace. We are the only company to have both the electronics as well as the electrical architecture; both the brains and the nervous system. This allows us to design the optimal configuration and to ensure the highest performance with the greatest reliability. 

Keep in mind, you may be traveling down the Autobahn at more than 200 kph. There is simply no room for error. Our ability to provide solutions ensure flawless operation is what sets us apart from competition and why we are so excited about the future.