Acquisition of Mobileye Drives Intel into Leading Position for Autonomous Car Market, IHS Markit Say

Highlights

*            With this acquisition, Intel will now target the key technologies enabling automated driving at several levels of the supply chain.

*            In the competitive landscape, Intel will – as a result of this deal– be a one-stop-shop, offering hardware and software solutions for infotainment and automated driving applications.

*            After Qualcomm’s acquisition of NXP, this event represents a major change for the automotive supply chain and will put Intel in a prevailing position for the autonomous car market.

Analysis

*            System

              *            Through the acquisition, Intel will solidify its position in the autonomous driving supply chain through Mobileye, which is the leader for front-view camera processors with around 80 percent market share.

              *            Combined with other past acquisitions including Yogitech, Itseez, Movidius, Nervana and  Altera and Arynga, Intel can address the key challenges required for automated driving including performance (Cyclone, Atom, EyeQx), functional safety (Yogitech), artificial intelligence (Movidus, Nervana) and over-the-air updates (Arynga).

*            Software

              *            Today, Intel acquired one of the successful companies developing software for automated driving, including machine vision, sensor fusion and artificial intelligence, positioning itself as a key

supplier at various levels of the automated driving supply chain.

              *            Intel can also leverage Mobileye’s current relationship with OEMs and well established tier-ones to lead the autonomous driving eco-system.

              *            Through Wind River’s acquisition, Intel could already offer operating system, security competencies and a complete open source platform to address the scalability requirements and complexity of forthcoming in-vehicle electronics.

*            Silicon

              *            For autonomous car architectures, Intel now has control over key automated driving building blocks including object recognition, sensor fusion, path planning, localization (Mobileye’s Road Experience Management) and, last but not least, connectivity and telematics.

              *            As IHS Markit has said many times, the advanced machine vision algorithms implemented by Mobileye ensured the growth in average selling price (ASP) and high margin of EyeQ processor family ever since its inception.

Outlook

Acquisition

*            Confirming the relevance of Mobileye and its role in future automated driving development, Intel’s automated driving group will be integrated into Mobileye and headquartered in Israel. According to IHS Markit, the robustness and competency of Mobileye in the field of automated driving imposes such continuity in the operation.

*            According to IHS Markit, the merged entity will be able to address the core elements of the self-driving cars: sensor fusion and front-view camera, whose combined system revenue is expected to reach $10 billion by 2022 from $2 billion today, with a CAGR of 28 percent.

*            Autonomous Driving

              *            IHS Markit forecasts as many as 21 million autonomous vehicles will be sold in the year 2035. In the interim and on the road to the autonomous milestone, driver assistance and automated driving technologies will continue to proliferate across all vehicle segments; the latest IHS Markit forecast reflects a 25 percent CAGR for the ADAS industry between 2017 and 2022 (excluding basic park assist).

              *            The acquisition of Mobileye by Intel is the latest in a series of high profile and high valuation acquisitions, investments and partnerships as automakers, suppliers and technology companies look to bring additional expertise in-house in order to capture more of the automotive and autonomous technology value chain.