Intel announced on Monday that Mobileye, a subsidiary that develops driver assistance technology for leading automakers in Israel, will go public next year.
The giant chipmaker said Intel will retain majority ownership of Mobileye, and the two companies will continue to collaborate on technologies for the automotive market. Mobileye’s management team will continue as CEO with co-founder Amnon Shashua following the initial public offering.
Intel acquired Mobileye in 2017 In a deal worth $15.3 billion as part of a comprehensive effort to expand into new markets. Founded in Jerusalem in 1999, Mobileye had grown into a major supplier of technology, including cameras, computer chips and software that could help provide automatic braking and lane keeping features to cars.
The company’s camera system was a key component of its driver assistance system Autopilot. Tesla, the electric car manufacturer introduced in 2015. The partnership ended abruptly next year as Tesla began building many of the same technologies on its own. However, Mobileye continued to work with other automakers, including Audi.
Like Tesla, Mobileye promoted their technology as a path to autonomous vehicles. The company announced that it announced this year. testing various self-driving car prototypes in major citiesIncluding New York. But most experts believe that such tools are years – and maybe decades – far from widespread use.
Mobileye’s business still focuses on providing camera-based systems for automatic braking, lane keeping and other technologies that assist drivers. But the company said it’s spreading to other car sensors, including radar and lidar — “light detection and distance” devices — which measure distances using laser pulses and are a crucial part of most self-driving car projects.
