Delphi Automotive PLC, one of the world’s largest auto parts suppliers, today announced that it has inked an agreement to buy self-driving car startup nuTonomy Inc. for $400 million.

The company will pay up to $50 million more in earn-outs depending on how well the acquisition turns out.

Spun out from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013, nuTonomy develops software for powering autonomous vehicles. The startup’s platform can process the environmental data from an automobile’s sensors and make driving decisions.

Speaking to IEEE Spectrum last year, nuTonomy Chief Executive Officer Karl Iagnemma detailed that his startup’s system uses an approach called formal logic to navigate. This method ensures that the built-in driving and safety rules are followed even in scenarios which were not anticipated during development. At the time of the interview,  nuTonomy was working with Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC to implement the technology in its cars.

The startup claims to have successfully deployed its software on a total of five vehicle models to date. The fact that nuTonomy’s platform can be readily adapted to different car types is a big plus for Delphi, which presumably hopes to sell the system to multiple automakers with varying technical requirements.

Moreover, the software is road-tested. Last August, nuTonomy started trialing six self-driving taxis in Singapore as part of a pilot project that was later expanded to Boston. Those two locations happen to be where Delphi has been testing its own autonomous vehicles.

Thanks to the acquisition, the auto parts maker expects to have 60 self-driving cars on the road by 2018. The roughly 100-person nuTonomy team will continue to operate out of Boston after the deal is completed later this year.

The acquisition is one of several investments that Delphi has made in autonomous driving technology in recent quarters. Previously, the company led a $65 million funding round into a startup called Innoviz Technologies Inc. that is building LiDAR sensing hardware.

Delphi’s interest in self-driving cars reflects the trend’s growing importance for the automakers that buy its equipment. For an autonomous vehicle, the software that handles sensory processing and navigation is just as vital of a component as the parts running the hood.

Addressing that requirement is all the more pressing for Delphi by the fact that rival auto suppliers such as Bosch Robert Bosch GmbH are also investing in autonomous navigation technology.

Image: nuTonomy