tech
Mobileye to launch its own US robotaxi service in 2027
For 25 years, Mobileye has been the arms dealer of self-driving, selling the cameras, chips, and software that now sit inside more than 230 million cars, while pointedly leaving the driving business to everyone else. On 16 June, it said it would start doing the driving itself.
TL;DR
- Mobileye, a supplier of self-driving technology, will launch its own robotaxi service in a US city in 2027.
- The company plans to start with a fleet of 100 vehicles and scale to 17,000 over five years.
- This move shifts Mobileye from a neutral supplier to a direct competitor with some of its customers.
- Mobileye will utilize its owned trip-planning app, Moovit, for consumer-facing aspects of the service.
- The company aims to address a perceived narrowness in the robotaxi market, though it enters late compared to Waymo.
- Operating a robotaxi fleet is a capital-intensive business, unlike Mobileye's previous high-margin, asset-light model.