Luddites are sounding alarms.
Following its acquisition of autonomous-driving experts Mobileye, tech giant Intel has announced that it will be releasing no less than 100 level-4 autonomous vehicle onto public roads by the year end. Developed and built by Mobileye, the cars are to be tested on public roads through Europe, the United States, and Israel, in a bid to gather as much data as possible to further refine autonomous driving systems as they become more and more widespread in their use.
The fleet of cars from Intel will utilise Mobileye’s sensor fusion, mapping tech and computer vision, as well as the software to run the cars themselves. Hardware will be supplied by Intel, along with the data cloud to support the fleet, along with the 5G connectivity gubbins. It is still unknown what form the fleet will take, as neither Intel nor Mobileye announced an automotive partner that would back their ambitious plans.
It’s worth noting that last year, Mobileye announced it would be working together with BMW to launch a fully-autonomous vehicle by 2021, with some 40 cars from BMW due to be deployed in the second-half of 2017 to further the project. It’s entirely possible that Intel will be working closely with BMW for this initiative, though we can only speculate at this point.
Amnon Shashua, the incoming CEO of Mobileye, had this to say about the future of autonomous vehicles:
“Building cars and testing them in real-world conditions provides immediate feedback that will accelerate delivery of technologies and solutions for highly- and fully-autonomous vehicles. Geographic diversity is very important, as different regions have very diverse driving styles, as well as different road conditions and signage. Our goal is to develop autonomous vehicle technology that can be deployed anywhere, which means we need to test and train the vehicles in varying locations.” — Mobileye CEO, Amnon Shashua
The Level 4 autonomous cars that Intel intends to get onto the road will be able to handle most situations on its own, alerting the driver only in cases where it’ll be out of its depth. Even then, by right, Level 4-certified cars should still be able to manage themselves should drivers fail to heed the warnings given by the car, or at least that’s the goal. Following the Mobileye acquisition, Intel’s ‘Automated Driving Group’ is now under its purview, combining resources from both parties. The division will be managed by Mobileye from its main office in Israel.
Stay tuned to CarShowroom as we bring you more updates as they come.
