Mobileye to lay off nearly 100 Lidar development employees, R&D unit to be wound down by end of 2024
Autonomous driving company Mobileye announced a shift it strategy today that involves exiting Lidar development.
Autonomous driving technology firm Mobileye announced today that the company will end internal development of next-generation frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) lidars. The R&D unit will be shuttered by the end of 2024, impacting nearly 100 employees.
Here's what Mobileye had to say in the press release:
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.
This action does not impact any of our customer product programs or product development in general. It also has no bearing on Mobileye’s commitment to development of our in-house imaging radar, which is meeting performance specifications based on B-samples and is expected to enter production next year, on schedule. 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.
The lidar R&D unit will be wound down by the end of 2024, affecting about 100 employees. 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.
Other companies in the space, like Tesla, have been working on full self-driving vehicles with CEO Elon Musk promising to show off the company's Robotaxi prototype next month. It's unfortunate to see Mobileye exit the Lidar space, as now both firms will be focusing on computer vision systems. In a world where it rains, it stands to reason that a hybrid system that takes advantage of cameras and Lidar sensing technology would be ideal, but today's news is a blow for that dream. Mobileye now shifts its focus to the company's EyeQ6-based computer vision perception system.
-
Shacknews
replyAsif Khan posted a new article, Mobileye to lay off nearly 100 Lidar development employees, R&D unit to be wound down by end of 2024
