Intel, Mobileye reveal plans to deliver 100 autonomous cars

Intel’s newly acquired company, Mobileye has announced plans to build a fleet of 100 fully autonomous test cars.

The fleet will include a range of different car brands and vehicle types in order to demonstrate the technology across different vehicles.

Intel’s new company will combine the proprietary capabilities from Mobileye, which include computer vision, sensing, fusion, mapping and driving policy, with Intel’s open compute platforms. They will also be paired with Intel’s data centres and 5G communication technologies to offer a complete system for the vehicles.

Amnon Shashua, Upcoming SVP of Intel & CEO/CTO, Mobileye said: “Building cars and testing them in real-world conditions provides immediate feedback and will accelerate delivery of technologies and solutions for highly and fully autonomous vehicles.”

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Mobileye, which was acquired this year by Intel for $15bn, will begin testing the self-driving cars in the United States, Israel and Europe.

The acquisition of Mobileye, which was put to completion this week, aims to accelerate Intel’s innovation of autonomous vehicles while also positioning the chip maker as a core technology provider in the industry.

For future deployments, Intel’s Automated Driving Group will combine its operations with Mobileye to continually lead all autonomous driving offerings going forward.

Both companies plan to enter a strong market which consists of a number of rivals such as Nvidia, Baidu and BMW – all of which have already hit the ground running with their own self-driving car plans.

Shashua said: “Geographic diversity is very important as different regions have very diverse driving styles as well as different road conditions and signage. Our goal is to develop autonomous vehicle technology that can be deployed anywhere, which means we need to test and train the vehicles in varying locations.”

The first set of autonomous vehicles will be tested on roads later this year, and is expected to eventually scale to over the initial fleet of 100 automobiles.