At the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Intel unit Mobileye, which is readying for a Wall Street offering in the third quarter, has displayed a new, high-speed system-on-a-chip designed as the "brains" of serial production autonomous vehicles (AVs) to be produced from 2025. The chip, named EyeQ Ultra, is characterized by super-fast processing, and was specially designed for autonomous motoring in an electric vehicle, with low power consumption. It is due to go into production towards the end of 2023, with mass production at vehicle manufacturing grade in 2025.
Mobileye designed the EyeQ Ultra using 5 nanometer process technology, on the basis of the experience it has accumulated in autonomous vehicles. It is expected to have very high performance-power consumption efficiency. According to the company, the new chip's performance is equivalent to that of ten EyeQ5 systems, its most advanced system currently in production, in one package.
Mobileye says that the new system is capable of dealing with all the requirements of Level 4 autonomous driving (that is, travelling without the driver's intervention on fixed, pre-mapped routes). Mobileye founder and CEO Prof. Amnon Shashua said, "Consumer AV is the end game for the industry. By developing the entire self-driving solution - from hardware and software to mapping and service models - Mobileye has a unique perspective into the exact requirements for the self-driving system that enables us to reach the performance-and-cost optimization that will make consumer AVs a reality." Shashua expects the price of the system to be "well under $1,000". This is a dramatically lower price than the prices at which systems for autonomous driving are currently sold to the automotive industry.
At the same time, Mobileye launched a series of chips and updates for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), that is, systems that still require a human driver. The EyeQ6L will be the successor to the EyeQ4 system-on-a-chip in a substantially smaller package. The solution, in the form of a box on the windscreen, provides artificial intelligence processing power with very low energy input for basic and premium ADAS.
The system went into trial production last year, and mass production is expected to start in mid-2023.
The EyeQ6H will support premium ADAS or partial AV capabilities with 360? sensor coverage. It is equivalent to two EyeQ5 SoCs in terms of computing power, and supports visualization, and according to the company performs better under heavy artificial intelligence workloads. This system will begin sampling this year and is due to begin production by the end of 2024.
Mobileye also announced expansion of its collaborations with auto maker Ford on ADAS and on mapping for a future autonomous vehicle, and with Volkswagen on mapping. The company also announced a strategic cooperation agreement with premium electric vehicle brand Zeekr of the Chinese Geely group. Shashua said that, under the agreement, Mobileye would provide Zeekr with technology for level 4 autonomy for a serial production model from 2024.
At a press conference accompanying the announcements, Shashua revealed that, last year, Mobileye's ADAS products had been integrated into 41 development programs for future models by 30 vehicle manufacturers, including an advanced system for Level 3 autonomy in Honda commercial vehicles, and an advanced ADAS product for a new BMW model. Mobileye systems were incorporated into 188 new models that came onto the market last year.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 5, 2022.
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