Israel’s Mobileye, Dubai’s Habtoor partner on self-driving cars
FILE PHOTO: A general view of a Mobileye autonomous driving test vehicle, at the Mobileye headquarters in Jerusalem. Picture taken May 15, 2018. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo
September 23, 2020
By Tova Cohen, Ari Rabinovitch and Alexander Cornwell
JERUSALEM/DUBAI (Reuters) – Israel’s Mobileye and United Arab Emirate’s Al Habtoor Group launched a partnership on Wednesday to create a fleet of self-driving “robotaxis” that could take to the streets of Dubai by the end of 2022.
The deal is the latest collaboration to emerge after last week’s historic accord between Israel and the UAE to normalise relations, though the companies began talking several months ago before news of a diplomatic breakthrough was made public.
Jerusalem-based Mobileye, Intel Corp’s autonomous car division, already has agreements to deploy its technology in cities in Japan, South Korea, France and Israel, and says Dubai was a natural choice.
“Dubai is one of the most advanced cities in world,” Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua told Reuters. “It is classic territory to launch technologies for smart cities and very natural to have Dubai for deploying autonomous cars.”
The companies will start by equipping 1,000 cars with Mobileye’s system to map Dubai and collect data.
Testing of the autonomous vehicles will begin in 2021 and a pilot program is expected by the end of 2022. A commercial service is planned for 2023 with a target of a few hundred vehicles within five years.
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That's what happens when minds focus on mutual improvement.
Rest of Mid-East, take note!
