Intel Deepens Self-Driving Investment as Competition Grows
March 13 2017 - 2:55PM
Dow Jones News
By Austen Hufford
Intel Corp. is the latest company racing to shape the future of
autonomous transportation, joining traditional car makers, parts
manufacturers and technology companies.
Intel said Monday that it struck a deal to buy Mobileye NV for
about $15.3 billion. Mobileye makes chip-based camera systems that
power semi-automated driving features used in cars today, and is
working to put that technology in self-driving cars.
BMW AG said in January that it will have 40 autonomous test
vehicles on roads later this year, a development forged in part
through a technology partnership with Intel and Mobileye.
Tesla Motors Inc. vehicles offer semi-automated driving
features. Last fall, the electric car company said that it plans to
charge buyers of its newest cars $8,000 to activate an expanded,
fully autonomous driving technology. In January, U.S. regulators
closed a probe of a fatal crash involving a Tesla Motors Inc. car
driving itself, concluding the Silicon Valley auto maker's
semi-automated technology didn't contain a safety defect.
Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc. has been testing
driverless vehicles that carry passengers in Pittsburgh and San
Francisco. In August, Uber bought Ottomotto LLC, a self-driving
truck technology startup, for $680 million. That deal has come
under scrutiny recently after Waymo LLC, the self-driving car unit
of Google parent Alphabet Inc., sued Uber, accusing the
ride-hailing company of stealing trade secrets to jump-start its
own autonomous vehicle program. Uber has said the move is a
"baseless attempt to slow down a competitor."
Alphabet Inc.'s car program had nearly 60 self-driving vehicles
on roads in four states as of August, and those vehicles
accumulated more than 2 million miles on public roads.
Qualcomm Inc. agreed to pay $39 billion for the world's largest
developer of chips for automobiles, NXP Semiconductors NV, in
October. NXP's position in the fast-growing automotive-chip market
was a key motivation for the deal.
Samsung Electronics Co. agreed to buy U.S. automotive technology
manufacturer Harman International Industries Inc., for $8 billion
in November. Harman has diversified into software development and
components for connected cars, such as Wi-Fi connectivity and
navigation systems.
General Motors Co. bought Cruise Automation Inc. , a Silicon
Valley company developing autonomous-vehicle technology, for more
than a $1 billion in May. GM also invested $500 million in San
Francisco-based Lyft Inc. to develop a self-driving taxi
service.
Ford Motor Co. said last month that it bought majority ownership
of an artificial-intelligence startup called Argo AI as part of
plans to invest $1 billion in the company. Artificial-intelligence
and machine learning are critical for helping computers understand
and process visual data needed for driving. In August, the company
said it acquired an Israeli machine learning firm, SAIPS, which has
12 employees, and invested $75 million in Morgan Hill, Calif.-based
laser sensor maker Velodyne Inc. to boost its autonomous-vehicle
know-how.
Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 13, 2017 14:40 ET (18:40 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024