Intel, Volkswagen and Mobileye announce selfdriving taxi service for Israel

When Tesla introduced the first version of the autopilot a few years ago, a race began among car manufacturers for the best system for autonomous driving and the introduction of the first completely autonomous car.

Of course, driver assistance systems existed before, but for the first time the goal was set to develop fully autonomously driving cars. Now Volkswagen, Intel and Mobileye have joined forces to take another big step towards autonomous driving. In a blog entry, the companies have announced that they intend to launch an autonomous taxi service in Israel next year.

Volkswagen will provide the electric cars, while Intel and its subsidiary Mobileye will contribute the technology for stage-4-autonomous driving. Stage 4 means that the car drives largely autonomously and the driver no longer has to focus on the traffic, as the car alerts the driver automatically in unusual situations.

In order to be able to offer this service, these companies want to set up a joint venture in Israel, which will reach full commercialization in 2022. The first autonomous cars are to enter the road at the beginning of 2019. Furthermore, the Israeli government has announced that it will provide the company with the necessary traffic data and adapt the laws accordingly. It will be exciting to see how this service will work in the real world and whether the companies will be able to keep to the tight schedule

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