The technical support behind Autopilot, Tesla’s autopilot system, is Mobileye, but the latter recently stated that Tesla will no longer provide technical support after the contract expires.
Mobileye is the world's largest supplier of ADAS advanced driver assistance systems. Its algorithms and chips can predict potential collisions, rear-end collisions, and other traffic threats based on the images captured on the car's camera. The company recently stated in a statement that due to differences in the use of technology, Tesla will not be provided with algorithmic and on-chip support after the expiration of the existing contract. Of course, the current product will still be supported and Maintenance, including functional upgrades, but no hardware upgrades.
It is not clear when the contract between Mobileye and Tesla will end, but it will release the new generation of ADAS system EyeQ4 in 2018.
The friction between the two companies also reflects the tension between auto-driving technology developers and auto makers, especially who owns these technologies and who can dominate the technology development.
Mobileye CTO Amnon Shashua believes that in the cooperation on how to use the company to have full control of the company, not just to provide technology, no matter how the technology is used.
Tesla CEO Musk responded to this by saying that this will not affect the company's development of the more advanced Autupilot system. "The situation has long been anticipated, but it will not affect our plan." He also said that Mobileye must support hundreds of models at the same time, which has caused its technical development to have a responsible impact.
Mobileye had expected that the revenue from Tesla will only account for about 1% of the company's total revenue. On Tuesday, Mobileye reported in the second quarter its revenue of $83.5 million and net profit of $26.9 million.
Mobileye said that the focus of future R&D will be the fully automated driving system. At the beginning of the month, it also announced that it will cooperate with BMW and Intel and plan to mass-produce highly automated and fully-autonomously driven cars in 2021.
Tesla is not weak. At present, it is also developing fully-autonomous driving cars. As for the upcoming Model 3 will use what kind of autopilot technology, it is still not known.