NIO To Partner With Intel’s Mobileye For Autonomous Tech In China

Chinese car manufacturer Nio will partner with Mobileye to develop self-driving vehicles for the Chinese market and other countries.

The agreement, as reported by Reuters, will see Nio manufacture a self-driving system designed by Mobileye, Intel’s autonomous driving technology firm. This system will be integrated into future models from Nio as well as Mobileye’s autonomous ride-hailing services. It is understood that Nio will develop the electric vehicles that will be deployed by Mobileye as robotaxis.

No financial details about the partnership have been announced. In an interview with Reuters, Mobileye president and chief executive Amnon Shashua said the two companies are planning for an initial release in China starting in 2022.

Hard Times: NIO To Slash Jobs After Nearly Half Billion Dollar Losses In Q2

“The deal with Nio will also enable us to harvest data in compliance with Chinese regulations and improve mapping to support autonomous driving,” Shashua said.

Shashua revealed that the companies are targeting the Chinese market for the initial rollout because the local government is working on standardizing Mobileye’s safety model for self-driving cars into law. In addition, the regulatory environment is centralized in China.

Mobileye’s self-driving kit includes camera, radar, and lidar sensors, as well as a vision processing chip and various safety and mapping software. Its advanced driver assist systems are used in models from more than 27 automakers.

Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that, after making a splash a couple of years ago and seeming to establish itself as a potential rival to Tesla, Nio has fallen on hard times. In Q2 2019, the company posted net losses of 3.3 billion yuan ($463 million) and has cut more than 2,000 jobs this year.