Intel Corp. has launched a major reorganization of its management structure to create for the first time a group within the company that is focused only on self-driving vehicles.

The new group, known as the Automated Driving Group or simply ADG, will be solely dedicated to “innovating the future of driving and designing the next generation of advanced driver assist systems and autonomous driving solutions.”

ADG is being led by Doug Davis, formerly the head of Intel’s Internet of Things division, who has been appointed as senior vice president and general manager of the group. Second-in-charge is Kathy Winter, who takes the role as vice president and general manager of the Automated Solutions Division. Prior to joining Intel, Winter held a similar position covering automated driving at self-driving car company Delphi Automotive LLC.

Replacing Davis at the IoT division is Tom Lantzsch who joins Intel’s executive leadership team as senior vice president and general manager of the IoT Group, after most recently holding the position of executive vice president of strategy at ARM Ltd.

“Throughout his career [Davis] has consistently been on the leading side of disruption – standing up amazing new technologies that redefine how we experience work and life,” Intel President Murthy Renduchintala said in a blog post. ”Doug sees the new Automated Driving Group as another not-to-be missed opportunity to lead through disruption, so much so that he has postponed his retirement to become the senior vice president and general manager of the new ADG.

The move by Intel to form a dedicated unit to automated driving shouldn’t come as a surprise given that the chip-making giant has been making moves in the space over the last 12 months, including forming an alliance with BMW and Mobileye Technologies Ltd. to further the development of self-driving cars in July, along with its acquisition of Italian startup Yogitech S.p.A to beef up self-driving car security in April.

“IoT and self-driving cars are part of the Intel growth strategy, so it’s very important to the company,” Moor Insights & Strategy President and Principal Analyst Patrick Moorhead told eWeek. “Intel is doing well in the data center, edge compute and gateways, and end points that need a lot of compute power, like robotics and security cameras. This is mostly greenfield for Intel.”

The changes are effective immediately.

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