The world’s largest and highest valued semiconductor chip maker Intel Corporation is purchasing Mobileye, an Israeli technology company that develops vision-based advanced driver assistance systems providing warnings for collision prevention and mitigation, for an estimated $15 billion, Ha’aretz reported Monday.
Mobileye N.V. was founded in 1999 by Hebrew University researcher Amnon Shashua, who grew his academic research into a technical solution for a vision system that detects vehicles using a camera and software algorithms. Shashua, together with Ziv Aviram, set up the company’s R&D headquarters in Jerusalem. The company developed algorithms, and the EyeQ processor chip. All of Mobileye’s proprietary image processing algorithms run on the EyeQ chip.
After years of testing, the chip and software algorithms began to be sold as commercial products to original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers. The company’s first clients were automotive manufacturers such as BMW, General Motors and Volvo, whose electronics suppliers integrated Mobileye’s technologies into their cars.
In 2006, Mobileye set up an Aftermarket department, which sells finished products which they manufacture at their Philippines factory, IMI. These Aftermarket products are sold to an international network of distributors.
In January 2017, Mobileye, BMW and Intel announced they were developing a test fleet of autonomous vehicles that would be on the road in the second half of 2017. The three companies plan to develop autonomous vehicles for the consumer market by 2021.