Intel subsidiary Mobileye is working on updates for its autonomous vehicle program, planning to launch test fleets in Detroit, Tokyo, Paris and Shanghai, TechCrunch reported.
Mobileye President and CEO Amnon Shashua said he’s also looking at testing in New York City if the company can get approved, per the report.
The cities selected were chosen based on the amount of customers that could be accessed, plus the regulatory environment, Jack Weast, a senior principal engineer at Intel and the vice president of Automated Vehicle Standards at Mobileye, told TechCrunch.
“That’s why we put our cars in the U.S. in Detroit, rather than Silicon Valley because all major OEMs are in Detroit,” Weast told TechCrunch, adding that Peugeot Renault is in Paris and Toyota and Nissan are in Japan. “The selection of the cities had a lot to do with putting the vehicles near our customers so that they would all have the opportunity to experience the technology firsthand because we expect our OEM customers to continue to be an important part of our business going forward, even as we supply a complete self-driving system.”
Mobileye has occupied its own special niche in that it works on computer vision sensor systems to help prevent collisions, the report stated. In 2018, the company expanded to include robotaxi operations. Now, it’s working on autonomous vehicle tech for passenger cars.
With the new strategy, Mobileye is aiming to debut both the commercial robotaxi operations as well as autonomous tech by 2025, the report stated.
Autonomous vehicles have been gaining popularity, as shown in the prospective deal between Hyundai and Apple to roll out a model in the next several years, which caused Hyundai stock to surge.
In addition, Tesla saw its valuation pass $800 billion this month, which also pushed CEO Elon Musk to a new status as the world’s richest man.
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