Mobileye Targets Incremental Advances in Self-Driving World

Israel-based Mobileye NV tells Bloomberg News it will launch its semi-autonomous driving technology on an unnamed vehicle later this year. The company says three other carmakers will introduce the feature in the next two years, and nine others are evaluating it.

The semi-autonomous technology, which will take over braking, throttle and steering functions under pre-determined conditions, will be introduced in three phases. Initially the system will be limited to highway applications. This will be followed by capabilities for country roads and then stop-and-go driving on city streets.

CEO Ziv Aviram already uses the system on highways in his specially equipped Audi A7 during daily commutes between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Mobileye's autonomous vehicle technology builds on the company's camera-based EyeQ4 sensor systems that are used in variety of driver assistance applications. Applying algorithms to video images taken from a single camera, EyeQ4 can detect vehicles, pedestrians, traffic lights and lane departures. It's currently being used for adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, forward collision control and automatic braking systems in a variety of vehicles.

Aviram expects to launch a fully autonomous system early next decade, at which time he says the bulk of Mobileye's revenue will be derived from modules for semi- and full-autonomous cars. But he tells Bloomberg that adoption rates will ultimately be determined by how much risk and liability carmakers are willing to assume.

Formed in 1999, Mobileye had a $1 billion initial public offering a year ago. It now has a market capitalization of $13 billion and supplies driver assistance systems to about 90% of the major global carmakers.