Intel has bought mobility-as-a-service firm Moovit for close to £722 (900) million, in a move that continues the chip firms drive towards the mobility and autonomous taxi sector.
Founded in 2012 the Israel-based Moovit has developed an urban mobility application that is used by millions to plan routes and source public transport. The application uses official public transport and crowdsourced data to help its users plan travel across urban areas, providing them with real-time travel data. Due to the addition of crowdsourced data the app can give advice on travel in areas not covered by official figures.
Intel has bought a number of transportation planning and autonomous vehicles firms in recent years. The firm has publicly stated that they want to run Robotaxi’s in urban environments in the coming years as that sector is estimated to be worth $160 billion by 2030.
Professor Amnon Shashua, CEO of Intel’s Mobileye commented that: “Moovit’s massive global user base, proprietary transportation data, global editors community, strong partnerships with key transit and mobility ecosystem partners, and highly skilled team is what makes them a great investment. Moovit is a strong brand trusted by hundreds of millions of people globally. Together, with Mobileye’s extensive capabilities in mapping and self-driving technology, we will be able to accelerate our timeline to transform the future of mobility.”
Mobileye
In 2017 Intel acquired Israeli start-up Mobileye to help strengthen its push into the autonomous vehicle industry.
Mobileye’s REM platform, a HD mapping solution using data collected by REM compatible vehicles, will be used to create maps that will be used across the autonomous systems for the consortium of carmakers.
The software will allow the autonomous fleet of cars to collect data from existing cars on the roads, using onboard sensors to create the HD maps and inform driverless systems in real-time. Information such as weather data, incident reports and construction information are examples of the real-time data expected to be used to create the mapping.
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Former Intel CEO Brian Krzanich commented at the time that: “Data is going to introduce social and economic changes that we see perhaps once or twice in a century.”
“We not only find data everywhere today, but it will be the creative force behind the innovations of the future. Data is going to redefine how we experience life – in our work, in our homes, how we travel, and how we enjoy sports and entertainment.”
Intel bought Mobileye in order to compete with the likes of Qualcomm and Nvidia and tap into the fast-growing driverless market that is upon us.
