David Fickling, Columnist

The Driverless Car Is Dead. Long Live the Driverless Car

A venture between Hyundai and Aptiv shows the hype has gone out of autonomous cars – and that’s a good thing.

September 24, 2019 at 4:59 AM UTC

David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering climate change and energy. Previously, he worked for Bloomberg News, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

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A $4 billion joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv Plc to develop autonomous cars might look like evidence that the promised land of self-driving vehicles is closer than we thought. In fact, it’s just the opposite.

The deal is certainly more than just fine words. Hyundai will be contributing $1.6 billion in cash and $400 million in services, R&D and intellectual property for its 50% share. Aptiv will hand over intellectual property and 700 employees, and the two promise they’ll have an autonomous-driving platform by 2022.