BMW, Intel, Mobileye Form Technology Alliance.
“We expect production of fully autonomous vehicles to be substantially less than 15 per cent of global light vehicle production by 2029”
BMW, technology giant Intel and Israeli minnow Mobileye are getting together to develop self-driving cars in a move designed to make sure the automotive industry remains able to fight off the challenge from the likes of Google, Tesla and Apple.
The three companies said they want to develop technology that would put robot cars on the road by around 2021.
Auto camera and software producer Mobileye said it would supply its Road Experience Management (REM) technology to the alliance and make its EyeQ5 chip available on Intel computers.
According to Morgan Stanley, Mobileye wants to set an industry standard so it can fend off the challenge from other technology firms.
“The sooner Mobileye can attach its products to real-time data capture and learning from as many billions of miles across as many manufacturers as possible, the more likely its position can be defended for longer. We wonder if it may be too soon to assume that competing manufacturers will agree on one standard and depend so deeply on one party for such an important skill set. With this in mind, understanding why the world’s largest and most valuable auto company, Toyota, is not yet a customer is critical,” said Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas.
According to the Wall Street Journal’s “Heard on the Street” column, the timing of the alliance was unfortunate, a day after Tesla announced a fatal accident involving its “Auto Pilot” system.
18-wheeler
“To be sure, launching a fully automated car in 5 years seems a stretch when one of the most advanced vehicles on the road can’t detect an 18-wheeler blocking the highway,” said columnist Dan Gallagher.
Mobileye’s chips and software help Tesla’s auto driving features, but so far it has not been implicated in the accident. Mobileye also makes current ubiquitous technology for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), like automatic parking and adaptive cruise control.
According to Morgan Stanley, fully autonomous cars are on their way, but may take decades to become the norm. Best not get too excited yet.
“We expect production of fully autonomous vehicles to be substantially less than 15 per cent of global light vehicle production by 2029. We believe the world’s car population may need to be replaced several times over with human operated machines before fully autonomous transport executes the average mile,” Morgan Stanley said.
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