Test Driving Mobileye’s Autonomous Vehicle
Mobileye, an Israeli tech company, is one of the leading companies in developing autonomous vehicles and was recently purchased by Intel for $15 billion. It provides Advanced Assistance Systems for two dozen international automobile manufacturers, and has its own prototype. This prototype, which is not fully self-driving, has eight cameras and an interior filled with laptop, satellite receivers, and other high-tech devices. In a test drive with a Washington Post journalist, the prototype drove at 50 mph on highways—accelerating, braking, and changing lanes. According to Mobileye’s CEO Ziv Aviram, the self-driving vehicle wave is “too big to stop.” Consider the self-driving taxis in Singapore, or self-driving Ubers in Pittsburgh. Aviram acknowledges that there is still more work to be done, and argues that the biggest challenge to the development of autonomous technology is teaching humanlike intuition. For example, an autonomous vehicle might wait all day at a four-way intersection with stop signs.
