Intel: The Mobileye Venture

Tuesday was a special moment for the company. It displayed to investors their focus in autonomous-driving wars as it shows the impressive development in New York.

Mobileye, a supplier of automotive safety systems that Intel acquired for around $15 billion in 2017 is a crucial pioneer in developing cameras on cars that help develop adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assistance essential in getting cars to drive by themselves.

New York City on the go

In its video, Mobileye had demonstrated its system that works towards achieving self-driving capabilities with the use of optical cameras, and this is useful in cities like New York that has double-parked cars and plenty of jaywalkers.

Such an approach is not a foreign concept. For example, Tesla has also adopted the camera-only approach in its driver assistance functions. The difference is, in Mobileye’s system, drivers will still need to be always engaged and be ready to be in manual control due to the lack of sensor redundancy.

By testing in complex urban areas such as New York, it is a milestone for the company in verifying the autonomous system as it shifts gear towards a more commercial ready application. The self-driving automotive strategy relies on lidar, which is a form of laser-based radar and conventional radar. The dream is enormous as it aims to achieve self-driving capabilities by 2025, where drivers in selected conditions will pay almost no attention to the road.

The competition is stiff

Reaching the self-driving capability is a holy grail for the industry. With the multiple systems partly dependent on Mobileye technology in the market, this is a particular growth prospect for Intel. Moreover, only that few self-driving cars, perhaps including taxis like Waymo, cost hundreds of thousands to build.

Solving the equation of self-driving involved deep pockets. For one, Tesla has a strong belief in the market. Second, the goal is to upgrade its Full Self Driving capabilities with the over-the-air software update, which can be the company’s greatest asset which is partly factored in its rich valuation.

If there is one underdog in the race, Intel might be on our radar.