Jerusalem – Israeli Expert Cools Engine Of Autonomous Car Revolution: We Won’t Be Driving Them In The Near Future

Jerusalem – Tesla’s Elon Musk recently announced that he expects to have fully self-driving cars by next year, but Professor Amnon Shashua, CEO of Israel’s Mobileye, has outlined major hurdles facing the autonomous future and said that privately owned autonomous cars are not as close as the industry had hoped.

In an editorial published on Intel’s website, Shashua explains the main obstacles to an autonomous automotive reality. In April, Tesla announced it expects to have fully self-driving cars around the second quarter of next year.

The two companies, both leaders in the autonomous vehicle industry, have been known to have different views on the path to full autonomy. One such example is the issue of lidar technology, which is a surveying method that measures the distance to a target with a laser. Musk had recently attacked the technology saying that “anyone relying on lidar is doomed, doomed. They are expensive sensors that are unnecessary. It’s like having a whole bunch of expensive appendices… you’ll see.” Shashua agrees that the self-driving systems should have a backbone of a camera-centric configuration, but is more cautious about removing lidar as a redundant component, at this point.

Shashua surprisingly predicted that a privately-owned autonomous car will only become available after the robotaxi industry deploys and matures. Shashua sees robotaxi ride-hailing as the future of mobility-as-a-service. In this scenario, the majority of people looking to get a ride in a car that is not theirs would do so in a robotaxi. Shashua says that the reason for the robotaxi’s importance as the first stage in autonomy is the time necessary for the autonomous industry to grapple with three key issues: cost, regulation and geographic scale.

The centralized and controlled setting of robotaxis makes it easier for companies to develop the technology as the driving data comes in and allows for engineers to figure out these issues.

This has, in fact, become a reality in Phoenix where Waymo deployed its robotaxi service as a trial run. Waymo recently announced it Just Passed 10 Billion Simulated Autonomous Miles and has also completed more than 10 million miles of real-world driving.

Tesla and Mobileye used to be partners in the autonomous car endeavor, but after a fatal car crash in 2016 involving a Tesla that was on autopilot the partnership came to end. Sources said that Tesla blamed the crash on a Mobileye component. Shashua has since said that Tesla has been taking high risks in order to lower costs and rush the deployment of a fully autonomous car.

Despite these challenges, the fully autonomous car is well on its way. If it will be here next year, or only four or five years down the road remains to be seen. And Israeli innovation will be a major part of its journey.