Mobileye’s decision to halt its internal R&D on lidar technology for autonomous vehicles is not a rejection of lidar’s promise for self-driving, nor does it mark a shift away from the firm’s “True Redundancy” strategy of combining computer vision and radar/lidar for that purpose, a company spokesman told Fierce Electronics via e-mail.
What it means is that the Israel-based developer of advanced driver assist systems and self-driving technology that is 88% owned by Intel–at least for now–eventually will look to other suppliers for its lidar needs.
“This announcement doesn’t affect our True Redundancy approach for ‘eyes-off’ systems with redundant sensing that combines cameras, imaging radar and lidar,” the spokesman stated. “This only affects where those lidars might come from in the future. We had been clear that our FMCW [frequency modulated continuous wave] lidar wasn’t going into production until later in the decade. Now all lidar needs going forward will come from suppliers."
These statements follow Mobileye’s announcement this week that it is halting its internal development of FMCW lidar technology, and shutting down its lidar R&D unit, in the process eliminating about 100 jobs. The decision comes after the firm shut down its Aftermarket Solutions Unit earlier this year in a move that affected about 130 jobs.
Mobileye’s shut down if its lidar unit, which is expected to be completed by the end of this year, also comes as the company’s majority owner is facing a fight for its life. The company was acquired by Intel in 2017 for $15 billion, and Intel later sold part of its holding via public offering. More recently, Intel reportedly has been considering selling some of this stake as the US chip giant has faced mounting investor pressure following its announcement of job cuts, earnings disappointment, criticism of its handling of its AI and foundry strategies, and more.
Lidar technology also has fallen out of favor for self-driving systems, at least in the near term, among other companies. Elon Musk and Tesla famously slammed the technology in recent years, and others have debated the expense involved and the engineering lift required to incorporate lidar into autonomous driving systems.
Mobileye also has seen progress in its own computer vision technology developments. In announcing its decision to end internal lidar development, the company stated, “As part of our regular review of the long-term technology roadmap, we now believe that the availability of next-generation FMCW lidar is less essential to our roadmap for eyes-off systems. This decision was based on a variety of factors, including substantial progress on our EyeQ6-based computer vision perception, increased clarity on the performance of our internally developed imaging radar, and continued better-than-expected cost reductions in third-party time-of-flight lidar units.”
Jack Gold, president and principal analyst at J. Gold Associates, said Mobileye’s decision makes sense. “This isn’t all that surprising given that Mobileye has not exactly been selling as well as it should given the investment involved in its chips,” he told Fierce Electronics. “There are several Lidar companies around and it makes more sense for Mobileye to concentrate on its AV [autonomous vehicle] chips that are compute-intensive and take a lot of R&D to get to finished products. Lidar is one component of AV that is not really critical for Mobileye to own (They don’t make their own cameras or radar components.) It can buy Lidar from several vendors, and it’s likely that the car maker will have their own ideas of which Lidar vendor to go with.”
Mobileye also clearly stated it is continuing development of its in-house imaging radar, “which is meeting performance specifications based on B-samples and is expected to enter production next year, on schedule.” The company added, “In terms of Mobileye’s internal sensor development, imaging radar is a strategic priority. This is a core building-block technology that we expect to drive competitive advantage for Mobileye-based eyes-off systems in cost/performance optimization and scalability.”
Like Intel, Mobileye also has seen its earnings performance dim of late. Last month, the company reported a year-over-year decline in revenue and growing loss. Its MBLY stock price is down about 30% during 2024. Regarding the financial impact of its lidar decision, Mobileye stated, “Operating expenses for the lidar R&D unit are expected to total approximately $60 million in 2024 (including approximately $5 million related to share-based compensation expenses). While this action is not expected to have a material impact on Mobileye’s results in 2024, it will result in the avoidance of lidar development spending in the future.”