Israel-based technology firm Mobileye and Tesla Motors Inc. will end their collaboration on developing the Autopilot self-driving technology.
Autoblog reports that on Tuesday morning, July 26, Mobileye has announced the end of the partnership during its second-quarter earnings report. Mobileye declared that the end of the collaboration with Tesla electric cars maker wouldn't have a material impact on company earnings. However, after the announcement, by Tuesday afternoon, the shares of the Mobileye were down more than nine percent.
Mobileye will keep providing technical support of its EyeQ3 processor for Tesla Motors, but will stop developing the Autopilot system and its related products. It is unclear yet when the current contract of partnership between Tesla and Mobileye will end and which company made the decision.
Mobileye plans to involve a greater share of its resources towards its partnership with Intel and BMW on developing more self-driving features. The Israeli company announced its partnership with Intel and BMW earlier this month.
Mobileye's announcement about the end of partnership with Tesla comes just nine days after Tesla CEO Elon Musk expressed his thanks to both Bosh and Mobileye for their efforts toward Autopilot system's development. At the time, Musk declared that Tesla will soon achieve "moderate and maybe big advances" to the Autopilot system.
After a number of Tesla drivers crashed while being possibly on Autopilot semi-autonomous driving, Tesla is facing several safety issues. This week, U.S. regulators declared that according to the preliminary findings, the driver who was killed in a Tesla car accident was speeding at 74 miles per hour in a 65-mph zone.
Tesla and Mobileye have disagreed regarding the fatal accident. According to CNET, Mobileye's comments were pretty critical.
Tesla has relied on Mobileye to provide software, chips and other parts of its Autopilot technology. It is unclear yet how much impact the end of collaboration with Mobileye will have on the California-based electric car maker.
