Delphi's PACE Award-winning E-Steer an autonomous vehicle building block

Engineers at Delphi Saginaw Steering Systems set out to cut weight and cost and boost performance. Their efforts won an Automotive News PACE Award — and ended up remaking the company and the industry.Delphi's E-Steer electric power-steering system used a small, brushless electric motor to turn the steering gears. The process rendered hydraulic power-steering mechanics — including power-steering pumps, hoses, hydraulic fluid and drive pulleys — obsolete.Winner's boxTo commemorate 25 years of PACE Awards for supplier innovation, Automotive News is looking back at one of the many winners.1999: Delphi Saginaw Steering SystemsTrade name: E-SteerInnovation: An electric power-steering system, using brushless motors, displaced the hydraulic systems that then dominated steering.Why it resonated: It eliminated a host of components, reducing weight and manufacturing complexity, while opening the door to advanced driver-assistance systems. But to develop E-Steer, Delphi had to begin remaking itself, dramatically increasing the number of electric and electronic engineers working for a supplier long dominated by mechanical engineers. That was a key transition for the company. By the time it emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009, Delphi was focused on products that were primarily electronic — what then-CEO Rodney O'Neal defined as "safe, green and connected."

Delphi's PACE Award-winning E-Steer an autonomous vehicle building block

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