Mobileye to launch robotaxis in Germany next year (updated)
07/09/2021 17:16
(Add Mobileye exec comments)
By Hyunjoo Jin
SAN FRANCISCO/MUNICH, Sept 7 (Reuters) - The chief executive
of Intel Corp's INTC.O self-driving vehicle technology unit
Mobileye said it plans an initial deployment of 50 autonomous
taxis in Munich, Germany next year, and added that rival Tesla
Inc's TSLA.O driver assistant system is not "safe enough."
Mobileye said it hopes to remove safety drivers from the
robotaxis by the end of next year and scale up the technology
across Germany and other European countries later this decade
upon regulatory approval.
Mobileye on Tuesday unveiled vehicles equipped with its
self-driving system that will be used for commercial, driverless
ride-hailing services that it plans to provide with German
mobility service provider SIXT.
The self-driving vehicles produced by Chinese carmaker NIO
were certified to go up to 130km an hour (over 80 mph) in
Munich, Mobileye’s vice-president of autonomous vehicle
standards Jack Weast said in an interview with Reuters.
Weast added that German regulation permitting autonomous
driving contributed to the company's choice of Munich as its
deployment city.
The German law, passed in May, is the first federal law
worldwide to permit autonomous driving in regular traffic,
albeit only in set areas and with the requirement that the
vehicle be overseen by a human.
Self-driving tech firms like Waymo have yet to successfully
deploy autonomous vehicles beyond limited areas, hampered by
cost and technical and regulatory challenges.
Mobileye, a former supplier of Tesla, develops a
camera-centric self-driving system similar to Tesla's, but plans
to add sensors that cost more but enhance safety of self-driving
vehicles, CEO Amnon Shashua said.
"Even though we can power a full self driving vehicle with
only cameras, we feel that at this point in time, it's not safe
enough," he said at an embargoed press briefing ahead of the IAA
Mobility event in Munich.
He said additional sensors would provide robustness to its
self-driving system to prove it is much better than human
drivers when it comes to reducing accidents.
U.S. regulators have been probing the safety of what Tesla
calls "Full Self-driving" capability, which helps drivers stay
in lanes and steer on highways, following a series of accidents
including a fatal crash in Texas. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2Q51X2
Mobileye broke ties with Tesla following a fatal accident in
Florida in 2016.
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco and Victoria
Waldersee in Munich; Editing by David Gregorio)
((hyunjoo.jin@thomsonreuters.com; 82-2-3704-5685; Reuters
Messaging: hyunjoo.jin.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))