Delphi (www.delphi.com) has announced that it is to pay $450 million for the Boston-based self-driving car start-up NuTonomy (www.nutonomy.com), which was founded in 2013 by Karl Iagnemma and Emilio Frazzoli.

Delphi CTO Glen De Vos said that his company wants to be the leader in autonomous vehicles, and sees Delphi winning a vital advantage in intellectual property and engineering skills by buying NuTonomy.

Delphi already has over 100 people working on autonomous vehicles; this acquisition adds over 100 more.

NuTonomy CEO Karl Iagnemma said: “Our mission has always been to improve the safety, efficiency and accessibility of transportation world-wide. Working with Delphi brings us one step closer to achieving our goal, with a market-leading partner whose vision directly aligns with ours.

“Together, we will set the global standard for excellence in autonomous-driving technology.”

The purchase cost Delphi $400 million in cash; there will be an additional $50 million in performance-based pay-outs. On completion of this purchase, Delphi plans to have autonomous-driving operations in Boston, Singapore, Pittsburgh,
Silicon Valley and Santa Monica.

The company intends to have 60 autonomous cars on the road by the end of this year.