Mobileye


Mobileye is an Israeli subsidiary of Intel corporation that develops vision-based self-driving car and advanced driver-assistance systems providing warnings for collision prevention and mitigation. Mobileye headquarters and main R&D centre is located in Jerusalem operating under the company name Mobileye Vision Technology Ltd. The company also has sales and marketing offices in Midtown, Manhattan; Shanghai, China; Tokyo, Japan and Düsseldorf, Germany.
In March 2017, Intel announced that they had agreed to a US$15.3 billion takeover of Mobileye. This is the largest acquisition of an Israeli company to date.

History

Mobileye N.V. was founded in 1999, by Amnon Shashua, when he evolved his academic research into a technical solution for a vision system which could detect vehicles using only a camera and software algorithms on a processor. After receiving a license to use the technology which was owned by Yissum it was possible to incorporate the company. Together with Ziv Aviram, he set up the company's R&D headquarters in Jerusalem, Israel.
At first, the company developed algorithms, and a custom accelerator processor chip called the EyeQ chip. All of Mobileye's proprietary image processing algorithms run on the EyeQ chip. The company's first clients were automotive manufacturers such as BMW, General Motors and Volvo. These companies electronics suppliers integrated Mobileye's technologies into the companies' cars, at first as an optional accessory when buying a new car, and later as a standard option in new cars.
In 2006, Mobileye set up an aftermarket department, which sells finished products manufactured by Mobileye at their Philippines factory, IMI. The aftermarket products are sold to an international network of distributors on all continents who sell the products to fleets of trucks and buses, to car dealerships, and to car accessory shops.
In August 2015, Tesla Motors announced that it is using Mobileye's technology to enable its self-drive solution, which would be incorporated into Model S cars from August 2015. After the first deadly crash of a self-driving Model S with active Autopilot became public in June 2016, Mobileye issued a statement that its technology won't be able to recognize a crossing trailer until 2018. In July 2016, Mobileye announced the end of its partnership with Tesla after the EyeQ3. EyeQ is used in over 15 million vehicles sold as of 2017.
In January 2017, Mobileye, BMW and Intel announced that they were developing a test fleet of autonomous vehicles that would be on the road in the second half of 2017. The companies plan to develop autonomous vehicles for the consumer market by 2021. In March 2017, Intel announced their intention to buy Mobileye for $15.3 billion. The deal was completed August 8, with Rothschild & Co and Citigroup as financial advisors to Intel and Raymond James advising Mobileye.
On 29 October 2018, Intel, Mobileye's parent company, released plans to commercialize Mobility-as-a-Service in Israel. In the press briefing, Volkswagen Group was announced as the automobile supplier, with Mobileye implementing self-driving capabilities and Israeli car distributor Champion Motors providing fleet support and operations. Intel specified a program launch in early 2019, with a timeline to commercial availability by 2022.

Company timeline

The firm's technology is based on the use of optical vision systems with motion detection algorithms running on a custom hardware accelerator the EyeQ chip. This is unlike many other competing systems which use a combination of visual detection, radar, and laser scanning. The firm's vehicle detection algorithms recognize motorised vehicles such as cars, motorcycles and trucks, in day and night time conditions. The firm's version performs its vehicle detection based functions using a single camera mounted in the rear view mirror, unlike the usual approach of using radars, laser scanners or in some cases stereo-cameras.
In 2011, the firm introduced the world's first OEM production of vision-only forward collision warning system on multiple BMW, GM and Opel vehicles.
Lane departure warning systems are in-vehicle electronic systems that monitor the position of a vehicle within a roadway lane and warn a driver if the vehicle deviates or is about to deviate outside the lane. Mobileye's version was launched in multiple production platforms through 2007 and 2008 with GM, BMW and Volvo.
The firm's pedestrian detection technology is based on the use of mono cameras only, using pattern recognition and classifiers with image processing and optic flow analysis. Both static and moving pedestrians can be detected to a range of around 30 m using VGA resolution imagers. The firm announced in 2008 that by mid-2010 they would launch a world's first application of full emergency braking for collision mitigation for pedestrians. Mobileye announced in May 2009 as part of the next generation Volvo radar-vision fusion system which also provides lane departure warning and vehicle detection with radar-vision fusion for an enhanced collision mitigation by braking system on the next Volvo S60 vehicle.
Since 2008, BMW 7-Series cars have been equipped with the Mobileye traffic sign recognition systems, developed in cooperation with automotive supplier Continental AG.
Adaptive highbeam systems automatically raise and lower the high beams without inconveniencing oncoming or preceding traffic. The firm's version, Intelligent Headlight Control, is in production on the BMW 7 series.
In 2011, the firm introduced multi-functional bundles including vision based FCW on the Opel Zafira and Opel Insignia.
In 2016, Mobileye announced a deal to work with Renault Nissan on digital maps that will help the automaker's move towards driverless cars.

Aftermarket

Since 2007 the firm has offered a range of aftermarket vision based ADAS systems, based on the same core technology as for production models. They currently offer lane departure warning, forward collision warning, headway monitoring and warning, low speed urban collision warning, intelligent headlamp control, speed limit indication and pedestrian collision warning.
These systems have also been integrated with fleet management systems.

Investments

Between 2007 and 2011, the company raised $160 million. In 2013, the company sold 25% of its private shares for $400 million to a group of blue-chip investors. One of Mobileye's biggest investors was Colmobil CEO Shmuel Harlap, who held a 7.2% stake. Following the acquisition, he joined co-founders Amnon Shashua and Ziv Aviram in the ranks of Israeli billionaires.

Awards and recognition

Comparison

Competition

Mobileye faces competition from Tier 1 automotive suppliers as well as from other technology companies, including potentially Google. There is also an increasing competition on the after-market space from radar-based systems manufacturers, such as Safe Drive Systems and others. Other competitors developing ADAS technology include Veoneer, , Cognitive Technologies, Continental AG, Bosch, NVIDIA, OmniVision Technologies, NXP, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, Renesas Electronics Corp., Denso, Green Hills Software, Qualcomm, and TomTom.