Mobileye Global Inc – Jul 13, 2023

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced sensors are revolutionizing the future of transportation. Autonomous driving platforms are combining these technologies to create vehicles capable of self-navigation to ultimately provide safer, more efficient, and sustainable roadways.

Helping to steer this advancement is Mobileye Global, a leader in the development and deployment of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving solutions. The company pioneered ADAS technology more than two decades ago and has continuously expanded the scope and capabilities of its products, while leading the evolution to autonomous driving solutions.

Mobileye’s systems now feature in almost 800 vehicle models, while its system-on-chips have been deployed in over 135 million vehicles. The company is actively working with more than 50 original equipment manufacturers worldwide on the implementation of its ADAS solutions.

With market-leading expertise that is focused on efficiency and scalability, the company is developing advanced sensing and perception capabilities, and high-precision mapping systems, along with a complex safety framework that underpins human-like, computationally efficient, driving policy and decision-making.

These purpose-built software and hardware technologies are designed to give customers a viable, modular, and incremental path toward useful and safe consumer and commercial autonomous vehicle solutions that will deliver the future of ADAS and make autonomous driving a reality.

Mobileye was founded in 1999, by Prof. Amnon Shashua, when he evolved his academic research into a monocular vision system to detect vehicles using only a camera and software algorithms on a processor. At the time, ADAS was in its infancy and the industry was dominated by the belief that expensive radar sensors and more cameras were needed to perform necessary functions.

However, Mobileye’s leadership realized that designing a system-on-chip dedicated to the massive computational loads required was the way to realize key advancements. And based on his pioneering academic research, Shashua proved that critical safety functions such as Automatic Emergency Braking and other perception tasks could be achieved using a single camera.

The ability to combine those revolutionary algorithms with a custom-designed and highly efficient EyeQ SoC mounted on the windshield was a true game changer for the industry, making ADAS relevant for the mass market. From that point on, Mobileye established many industry firsts and pioneered many of the vision-based ADAS functions prevalent today.

Mobileye soon realized that the technology it had been developing made up some of the crucial building blocks needed to develop a fully autonomous car, and began pursuing this in earnest. However, advancing from ADAS to AV did not only require additional sensors and more advanced algorithms, it also required solving the industry-wide challenges of regulating AV safety, creating HD maps for AVs at scale, and driving down the cost of the hardware needed for each vehicle. These are all areas where Mobileye is a leader in the industry by tackling the challenges of scale head-on.

In 2014, Mobileye went public before it was subsequently acquired by Intel for over $15 billion, positioning the company at the forefront of Intel’s push into the autonomous driving sector. Since then, Mobileye’s technology has continued to advance and diversify, and the company has worked to scale its autonomous driving solutions and explore new market opportunities, such as robotaxis.

Having led Mobileye through the largest Israeli IPO and acquisition deals ever, Amnon Shashua still serves as president and CEO. His expertise in computer vision and machine learning has seen him publish over 160 papers and hold over 94 patents in the field.

Shashua has cofounded several leading and award-winning companies in the field of AI, including OrCam Technologies, a pioneer in developing personal, AI-driven platforms to provide increased independence for people who are blind, visually or hearing-impaired, or otherwise disabled. He also helped form AI21 Labs, which helps AI systems process language as a human mind would. In addition to his AI-based companies, Shashua founded “One Zero”, the first digital bank in Israel, and the country’s first new bank in 40 years.

Joining Shashua as chief technology officer, Professor Shai Shalev-Shwartz is best known for pioneering research in machine learning and is considering one of the world’s most influential researchers for ground-breaking and unique contributions to computer science and engineering.

Mobileye’s comprehensive and technologically advanced offerings aim to provide a full suite of products in the autonomous driving and ADAS space. The EyeQ family of SoC devices underpins this suite as the chips are designed to support the functions of computer vision and machine learning, ultimately serving as the brain behind the company’s automotive safety technology.

Key products which include SuperVision, Mobileye Chauffeur, and Mobileye Drive, offer computer vision and camera-based perception at varying levels of autonomy up to and including an eyes-off/hands-off solution that will deliver driving functions without the need for any in-vehicle human intervention.

The company also offers its Road Experience Management (REM) technology, a unique mapping solution that uses crowd-sourced data from equipped vehicles to create real-time, high-definition maps. These maps are an integral part of the company’s autonomous driving technology, providing the necessary environmental context to self-driving systems.

Moreover, Mobileye’s product portfolio also includes an entire suite of ADAS functions such as Forward Collision, Lane Departure, Headway Monitoring, and Pedestrian Collision Warning systems, Speed Limit Indication, and Intelligent High-Beam Control.

The breadth and depth of Mobileye’s offerings have attracted a wide range of customers. Automobile manufacturers make up a significant portion of Mobileye’s client base, integrating the company’s technology into their vehicles to improve safety and move toward autonomous capabilities. This includes leading global automakers such as BMW, Volkswagen, and many others.

Aside from manufacturers, Mobileye also provides solutions for ridesharing companies and fleet operators. These customers utilize Mobileye’s technology to enhance the safety and efficiency of their fleets, with the aim of reducing operating costs and liability.

The company’s technology is also being adopted by municipalities and government bodies. They use Mobileye’s solutions for urban planning and infrastructure development, leveraging the crowd-sourced data from REM technology to gain insights into road conditions and traffic patterns.

While ADAS has been central to the advancement of automotive safety and mass adoption of autonomous vehicles is still nascent, Mobileye believes that the future of mobility is fully autonomous, where a human is not actively engaged in driving the vehicle for extended periods.

This future of useful autonomy is not without far-reaching complexity. The ability to drive autonomously not only requires a substantial amount of data to be capable of navigating any environment in any condition at any time, but also a robust technology platform that can withstand the validation and audit process of global regulatory bodies. Moreover, any solution needs to be produced at a cost that makes it viable and scalable.

Consequently, Mobileye is building its technology platform to address these fundamental and significant challenges. In particular, it has designed solutions to operate with several scale-driven elements in mind:
– Its REM crowd-sourced maps allow the map-building and -updating process to be automated
– The cost-optimized EyeQ SoC family is highly scalable and built to be at the core of the company’s full spectrum of current and future ADAS and AV solutions
– Software-defined imaging radars are aiming to reduce hardware costs significantly, facilitating consumer products at scale

In addition, the company has been optimizing a Responsibility-Sensitive Safety framework, which is used by international bodies that are currently developing standards with respect to the safety of AV, and forms the backbone of a human-like, driving policy and decision-making engine.

These developments are paving the way for computer-driven “robotaxis”. Such automated-Mobility-as-a-Service (aMaaS) offerings will require highly accurate road maps that are far more precise than existing GPS-based geolocation technology in order to scale globally.

The acquisition of Moovit has also brought Mobileye’s aMaaS vision closer to fruition. The comprehensive mobility platform allows users to plan and execute their travel using a variety of modes of transportation driven by a massive global user base, proprietary transportation data, global editors community, and strong partnerships with key transit and mobility ecosystem partners.

Looking ahead, Mobileye expects to benefit from regulatory and safety rating changes promoting ADAS solutions. As a result, it plans to capitalize on Cloud-Enhanced Driver Assist features, leveraging significant value through its REM technology. The company will also further enhance and drive the adoption of its Premium Driver Assist product, which provides a comprehensive eyes-on/hands-off ADAS solution.

Mobileye intends to continue to develop and commercialize next-generation active sensors such as software-defined imaging radars, which leverage its AI capabilities. Furthermore, it will utilize its substantial and growing dataset to continuously improve the intelligence and robustness of its solutions.

Since going public, Mobileye has experienced significant growth, with revenue more than doubling in just the last two years after reaching $1.9 billion in 2022. Largely due to a combination of volume and average selling price growth for its eyes-on/hands-off, SuperVision solution.

This momentum is continuing in 2023 as the company’s pipeline of design win opportunities in 2023 is expected to be higher than the previously estimated record $6.7 billion in projected future revenue by 2030, from design wins achieved in 2022.

Mobileye is also benefitting from improved gross and operating margins year-over-year due to lower amortization of intangible assets as a percentage of revenue. The conversion of revenue growth into gross profit that significantly outpaced year-over-year growth in operating expenses has also been a key driver.

Due to negative impacts in the Chinese electric vehicle market in recent months, Mobileye and analysts have tempered their earnings outlook. Consequently, full-year earnings per share are expected to contract by 19% in 2023, before returning strongly with 30% and 50+% year-over-year growth in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

In the ADAS and consumer AV market, Mobileye faces competition primarily from other external providers including Tier 1 automotive suppliers and silicon providers, as well as in-house solutions developed by OEMs. These include an extensive list of renowned names such as Bosch, Continental, Advanced Micro Devices, Qualcomm, Huawei, and NVIDIA, among many others. While automakers include Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, General Motors, and several Chinese EV manufacturers.

In the autonomous driving market, both automakers and technology companies are investing in AV development and robotaxi offerings. AMaaS competitors include Aurora, Cruise, Yandex, and Zoox in the United States and Europe, while Chinese giants include Baidu, Didi Chuxing, and WeRide.

Despite the intense competition, Mobileye holds several competitive advantages. The company’s EyeQ system-on-chip devices are a major differentiator, providing powerful and efficient processing capabilities for computer vision and machine learning. While its REM technology which provides a unique approach to real-time, high-definition mapping, also sets it apart from its competitors.

In the rapidly evolving world of autonomous driving, Mobileye has proved itself a pioneering force as it continues a trajectory of growth and innovation. With a robust suite of products and technologies, it is uniquely positioned to continue leading the charge toward fully automated driving that aims to make roads safer and more efficient.