Intel is looking to get into a more direct role in the driverless car industry. Intel has been a partner with Mobileye, but now the chipmaker giant has acquired Mobileye. With the acquisition, Intel is poised to have more presence in the growing driverless technology industry.
Intel has acquired Mobileye for $15.3 billion. This is said to be the largest acquisition ever made for an Israeli technology company. Mobileye is known for its products, such as sensor fusion and front and rear facing cameras. With Intel acquiring Mobileye, it would be able to deal more directly with car companies.
Mobileye's CTO and founder Amnon Shashua has said that it is already working with other car companies. Mobileye has projects together with Audi, BMW and other car companies. Already Mobileye and Intel together with BMW will make 30 test vehicles later this year.
Intel sees the driverless car industry to grow in the next few years. Its projection is that the growth of the industry would be as much as $70 billion by 2030. Other companies are competing to come out with driverless cars as well.
Nissan is said to be working on a converted Leaf vehicle and will have it out by 2020. Another company that has invested in the driverless technology industry is Google, according to the BBC. Intel sees this growth to come even as early as 2020, when there would be 4 TB of data generated by driverless car technology.
Intel has also invested in other companies that are related to the driverless car industry. Intel has invested into Here, Itseez and Yogitech, as TechCruch reports. Intel has also increased its presence in auto shows in recent years.
Analysts are taking note of companies trying to position themselves into the growing driverless car industry. Timothy Carone from Notre Dame University has said that major players are already finding ways to get into the growing technology. The coming years would see how much would the driverless car industry grow.
Intel is poised to have a bigger role in the emerging driverless car industry. The driverless technology company Mobileye has been bought by Intel. Volkswagen as recently also shown its driverless concept car, Sedric.
