Intel buys Mobileye for $22bn

US chipmaker Intel is taking a big bet in the autonomous car market after purchasing Mobileye for US$15.3 billion (NZ$22.1 billion).

Israel-based Mobileye supplies integrated cameras, chips and software for driver-assist systems – the building blocks for self-driving cars – to more than two dozen vehicle manufacturers.

Mobileye and Intel are already working together, along with German carmaker BMW, to put 40 test vehicles on the road in the second half of this year.

Intel expects the driverless market to be worth as much as US$70 billion by 2030.

Mobileye currently has contracts with 27 car makers. It also controls about two thirds of the market for software that runs automatic emergency braking and semi-autonomous cruise control systems already fitted to cars and trucks.

Earlier this month, Nissan test drove a converted Leaf vehicle and said it hoped to make the cars available by 2020. Google has also done extensive development of driverless cars.

Announcing the deal, Intel says that as cars “progress from assisted driving to fully autonomous, they are increasingly becoming data centres on wheels”.

Intel will integrate its automated driving group with Mobileye’s operations, with the combined entity run by Mobileye chairman Amnon Shashua from Israel.

Intel chief Brian Krzanich says the acquisition is akin to merging the “eyes of the autonomous car with the intelligent brain that actually drives the car”.

Intel has forecast that by 2020 driverless cars will generate 4000 GB, or four terabytes, of data a day that can be mined for information.