The arms race in the self-driving car industry is heating up. Intel, the company that makes many of the chips that run laptop and desktop computers, has spent over $15 billion to purchase Mobileye, a company that makes cameras for cars. The huge acquisition puts Intel into the running with other self-driving car companies, including Google and Tesla, and could help speed up the process to safer roads and fewer car accidents.
Intel Steps Into Self-Driving Car Race
The self-driving car industry is quickly becoming the hottest one out there. According to the investment firm Goldman Sachs, which specializes in speculating how valuable something will become in the future, driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicles would grow from $3 billion in 2015, to $96 billion in 2025, to $290 billion in 2035.
Now, Intel is putting its hat in the ring, buying one of the biggest companies that makes all of the pieces of driver assistance programs for $15.3 billion.
Mobileye’s Past in Automated Vehicles
Mobileye, a company based in Israel, has a long history in making things for automated cars. When automated cars were still in their early stages of design, Mobileye was supplying cameras and visual software to Tesla. However, Mobileye and Tesla split ways after a fatal crash involving Tesla’s Autopilot system.
According to Mobileye, it had “expressed safety concerns regarding the use of Autopilot hands-free” before the fatal crash on May 7, 2016. In the follow-up to the crash, Tesla blamed the camera, which had been supplied by Mobileye, for causing the accident. Their business relationship quickly soured.
The situation was only a small bump in the road for Mobileye, though. It now accounts for 70% of the global market for computer and visual systems for driver assistance and anti-collision programs.
Intel and Mobileye a Powerful Partnership
Back in January, Mobileye Chairman Amnon Shashua stressed the importance of collaboration in such a huge project as building autonomous vehicles. “If you want to build a truly autonomous car, this is a task for more than one player,” he said. “The idea is to have a number of partners to share resources and data.”
This makes the partnership between Intel and Mobileye so powerful. With Mobileye’s ability and resources in gathering data and Intel’s skill in analyzing it, it doesn’t matter that neither organization makes cars. By focusing on the technical aspect of how to drive a vehicle using computers, they can become a huge player in the self-driving car industry.
St. Joseph Car Accident Attorneys at the Smith Law Office
The development of self-driving cars is exciting to watch. Especially with the rise of distracted drivers causing car accidents, automated vehicles can make the roads of the U.S. far safer than they are.
Until they’re ubiquitous, though, car accidents will be a normal occurrence. If you or someone you love gets hurt in a car accident in St. Joseph or Kansas City, you need the personal injury attorneys at the Smith Law Office. Contact us online or at (816) 875-9373 for the legal representation you need to get the compensation you deserve.