UPDATED 02:34 EDT / JULY 01 2016

NEWS

Intel to partner with BMW, Mobileye on self-driving cars

Intel is set to form an alliance with Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, better known as BMW, and Mobileye Technologies Ltd., a company that develops vision-based advanced driver assistance systems, to further the development of self-driving cars.

Bloomberg cited “people familiar with the matter” as saying the three companies will hold a webcast news conference later today where they’ll announce the new initiative. While none of the companies have provided any details so far, it’s well known that all three have big ambitions for the self-driving car space. And any such alliance wouldn’t be the first time that automakers and tech firms have banded together to pursue the idea.

Bloomberg’s report says the alliance will be a pretty big deal for all concerned, with Intel CEO Brian Krzanich set to be joined by BMW CEO Harald Krueger and Mobileye co-founder, chairman and CTO Amnon Shashua during the conference.

BMW’s interest in self-driving cars is no secret. The company has gone on record to say it intends to bring autonomous vehicles to market by 2021, just five years from now. It’s believed that BMW’s acquisition of Nokia’s HERE Maps was also due to its interest in driverless cars. The automaker has also partnered with Mobileye in the past, using its technology to enable vehicles to sense the environment around them and avoid collisions.

Intel’s motive is also clear. The company’s main cash cow, the PC market, is in a seemingly irreversible decline, and that’s forced it to seek out new pastures to avoid slipping into the doldrums. Intel hasn’t been helped by its failure to crack the mobile market either, and is now focused on building chips for data centers and the Internet of Things (IoT), which includes the self-driving car space.

Intel CEO Krzanich penned a blog post not so long ago outlining the company’s future strategy, where he noted that a key element would be its focus on IoT. This includes “all smart devices—every device, sensor, console and any other client device—that are connected to the cloud,” he said.

“The biggest opportunity in the Internet of Things is that it encompasses just about everything in our lives today—it’s ubiquitous,” the CEO continued. “At Intel, we will focus on autonomous vehicles, industrial and retail as our primary growth drivers of the Internet of Things.”

It’s still uncertain how big a ‘thing’ self-driving cars will be, however. Estimates as to how many driverless cars will be on the road vary wildly, with Grand View this week projecting a conservative but very specific figure of 138,089 self-driving cars in the world by 2024. Meanwhile, IHS Automotive recently predicted a whopping 20 million driverless cars on the road by 2035.

Photo Credit: scratch312 via Compfight cc

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU