Las Vegas Mobileye is one of the world’s leading suppliers of sensory systems for cars. Now founder Amnon Shashua is focusing on Germany. “We are currently in talks with potential German customers and are open to new partners,” says the head of the Israeli company, which specializes in autonomous driving, in an interview with the Handelsblatt.
Most recently, Volkswagen had agreed on extensive cooperation with Mobileye – and at the same time discontinued the Argo AI joint venture started with Ford. Shashua does not want to comment on the deal. According to industry circles, the new partners want to work together to improve autonomous driving performance on the motorway, among other things.
As the founder confirms, another partnership with a large car manufacturer that does not come from Europe is to be announced in the coming weeks. It would be the seventh cooperation: According to Mobileye, it has already signed contracts with four Chinese and two European manufacturers.
BMW turns away from Mobileye
In 2017, the chip manufacturer Intel took over the Israeli company and took it public again last October. Acquiring new customers is extremely important to Mobileye. In 2022, the company had experienced some setbacks. So BMW had turned away from Mobileye.
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At the moment, the vehicles from Munich are equipped with the system from Israel. For future generations of electric cars, however, BMW is cooperating with Californian competitor Qualcomm. “Hopefully we will have a closer relationship again in the future,” Shashua says of BMW.
The US chip giant Nvidia recently announced a new partnership with the world’s largest contract manufacturer Foxconn at the CES technology fair in Las Vegas to jointly develop autonomous vehicle platforms.
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Mercedes-Benz has also brought Nvidia on board. The Swabians are expecting their autonomous driving system to be approved on the highways in the US states of Nevada and California in the coming weeks. From a speed of up to 60 kilometers per hour, the driver can take his attention off the road with these so-called Level 3 systems, the liability passes to the manufacturer.
Criticism of the Mercedes approach
Shashua thinks little of this approach. “All autonomous driving systems below a speed of 130 kilometers per hour are useless,” he says. Too often drivers have to intervene, the system switches on and off at will. “That cannot be marketed in a sustainable manner.” The aim must be for the car to drive autonomously from the motorway entrance to the exit – and also to be able to deal with dangerous situations without the driver having to intervene.
Basically, the Jerusalem computer science professor doesn’t think much of the previous five-level classification of autonomous driving systems: “Level 2, 3, 4 is a designation for engineers, not for users.” Mobileye differentiates between systems in which the driver can take his hand off the wheel and those where where he no longer has to look at the road. “The driver needs to know when the system will intervene and when not,” says Shashua.
The 62-year-old is optimistic about the use of robotic taxis in Germany: they are getting closer. “Our test fleet in Munich collects data every day,” he says. The technology recently received an approval recommendation from Tüv Süd. This will allow Mobileye to operate autonomous vehicles with safety drivers on all German roads.
Mobileye had originally announced the launch of a robotaxi service in Munich for 2022. Now it was said that the pilot phase would “continue to pick up speed” in 2023 after the legal requirements had been put in place.
Mobileye could soon expand its test drives to all of Germany.
(Photo: dpa)
In Germany, Benteler from Paderborn also relies on Mobileye technology. The automotive supplier presented its autonomous minibus “Holon” at the CES.
Additional sensors required
Shashua also doesn’t think much of Elon Musk’s repeated promises: “Tesla’s approach is dangerous.” The head of the electric car manufacturer had announced the launch of fully autonomous vehicles several times and then had to backtrack. In contrast to all its competitors, Tesla only uses cameras, no additional radar and lidar sensors. After a series of accidents, some of them fatal, the US traffic control authorities are investigating.
The Mobileye boss believes that Tesla will soon have to make a fundamental change. “What Tesla says publicly is different than what they do internally. Tesla will have to add active sensors, I’m sure,” says Shashua. There are already reports that Tesla is testing imaging radars.
The vehicle presented at the electronics trade fair CES contains technology from Mobileye.
(Photo: Reuters)
Mobileye offers several autonomous driving systems in parallel. The inexpensive basic system “Supervision” supports the driver with cameras. According to Mobileye, there is strong demand for this in China. More than 70,000 Zeekr electric car owners will soon receive an update that unlocks important map-based functions. Zeekr is a brand of the Geely Group, the main Mobileye partner in the country.
The “Chauffeur” and “Drive” systems contain additional radar and lidar sensors and chips. One day a car equipped with “Drive” should be able to drive without a driver.
“Mobileye has interesting advantages over its competitors, such as its comprehensive mapping system,” said Sam Abuelsamid, principal analyst at industry expert Guidehouse. The division of the autopilot into several systems is unusual. The advantage: “Mobileye can sell the basic camera system individually.”
However, the camera data determined the driving decisions at all levels – radar and lidar would only be added as an additional security level. “It remains to be seen whether this model is future-proof,” says Abuelsamid.
Rosy plans – red numbers
Founder Shashua is optimistic: “The challenge in the robot car business is not the technology,” he says. Apart from a few borderline cases, autonomous driving is already working. “Most providers fail to scale and build a profitable business model.” For 2030, Mobileye expects autopilot sales of more than $17 billion. Shashua emphasizes that there is no need for larger acquisitions.
From today’s perspective, the plans appear ambitious: In the third quarter of last year, Mobileye achieved sales of 450 million dollars. At the same time, the company slipped into the red and posted an operating loss of $25 million. Shashua hopes things will pick up again in 2023 largely due to the strong chip business. “We are at an inflection point in terms of growth.”
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