CONNECT WITH US

Mobileye new chip becomes key for developing inexpensive autonomous system

Staff reporter, Taipei; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES Asia 0

Credit: AFP

Mobileye, an auto technology developer under Intel, is looking to build an autonomous driving system priced between US$5,000-10,000. Mobileye hopes to boost the penetration of the system into cheap cars so that its new chip may become a key part of the product.

With automobiles equipped with a level 4 autonomous driving system already gaining public attention in some markets, many market observers expect demand for level 4-5 autonomous driving vehicles to start to appear after 2025. For this business opportunity, Mobileye is now pushing to develop a level 4 autonomous driving system that is priced as low as US$5,000.

With combined costs of 4-6 360-degree surround-view cameras, a mmWave radar, and a LiDAR going up to around US$4,000, Mobileye will need to build the central control system with a budget of less than US$1,000, and its EyeQ Ultra chip may play a critical role in achieving such a goal, the market observers said.

During CES 2022, Mobileye announced three new chips: the standard-level EyeQ 6L (to be used in level 1-2 systems), the higher-end EyeQ 6H (to be used in level 2+ systems), and the EyeQ Ultra SoC (to be used in level 4 systems).

The EyeQ Ultra will be made via a 5nm manufacturing process and will enter pilot production in the second half of 2023 and volume production in 2025. The chip will be made by STMicroelectronics and powered by 12 RISC-V cores and 64 accelerators of four different types.