Intel to acquire Mobileye for $15 billion with an eye to capture the self-driving car industry

Israeli company Mobileye is a big name in autonomous vehicle technology and it just became a part of Intel. Intel, the leader in computer chip manufacture to acquire the Israeli company at a price of little over $15 billion. The transaction will be completed by the end of this year and is all set to make Intel a major player in self driving automobile industry.

Experts predict that in the next 5 years, automatic cars will be carrying people. Intel’s purchase seems to be a validation of that prediction. Meanwhile automakers as well as tech companies are doing their best to carve out a niche in this market. Though automatic cars are still mostly in trial phase, it is quite clear that they will soon revolutionize the way people travel.

Mobileye is a software maker; their software processes information from cameras and car sensors and decides how the car should move. This technology will be pivotal in designing a viable self driving car. Adding the expertise of Intel will surely hasten the deployment of the technology. Mobileye already has partnerships with many automakers and tech companies that are testing their vehicles including BMW and Intel.”This acquisition essentially merges the intelligent eyes of the autonomous car with the intelligent brain that actually drives the car,” Intel CEO Brian Krzanich wrote in a note to employees.

Though self driving cars seem quite inevitable, there are still some issues that need sorting out. For example, there is no certainty about how an autonomous car will drive in bad weather or thick snow or how they will deal with the nuances of local traffic behavior. But experts are confident that with time these shortcomings can be rectified.