Mobileye Self-Driving Car Runs a Red Light

A prototype vehicle equipped with Mobileye NV’s self-driving car technology ran through a red light at the end of a demonstration last week in Jerusalem.

The company blames the incident on electromagnetic interference (EMI) from wireless transmitters used by a local television crew that rode along to videotape the trip. Mobileye says the car’s camera correctly identified the light as red, but it ignored the information due to the interference.

A backup driver on board didn’t intervene to try to stop the car as it passed through the T-intersection without encountering another vehicle. Pedestrians stood at the side of the street and watched as the car drove past.

Describing the miscue as a “unique situation” that wasn’t anticipated, Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua says the company is modifying its software to thwart EMI. Unlike other autonomous systems, Mobileye’s current system relies solely on camera sensors rather than a combination of cameras, radar and lidar. The company plans to add other sensors in the future as backups.

Intel Corp. purchased Mobileye last year for $15.3 billion. Earlier this month the supplier announced a contract to supply an unnamed European carmaker with its chip platform for as many as 8 million semi- and fully-autonomous vehicles starting in 2021.