Mobileye deal puts limelight on Israel’s driverless car tech
Intel pays $15bn for the maker of advanced driver assistance systems Israeli firm Mobileye
Jerusalem — Intel’s $15bn purchase of Israeli firm Mobileye could help fuel the country’s rise in the driverless car industry — not as a builder of vehicles, but as the brains behind them. Monday’s deal, the largest to date in Israel’s tech sector, could help boost trade despite the fact that no commercial cars are assembled in the country. The self-styled "start-up nation" has no real tradition of vehicle manufacturing: an ignoble previous stint in the 1960s and 1970s produced the fibreglass Susita car, parts of which were edible for camels, according to legend. But the rise of new technology, including driverless cars, has opened space for the tech-savvy country to excel. In 2013, Google paid more than $1bn for Waze, an Israeli crowd-sourced app that plots the quickest journeys in real time, followed by Monday’s $15bn Mobileye deal. The company makes advanced driver assistance and accident avoidance systems for car manufacturers and has already collaborated with Intel and BMW on s...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.