Mobileye says it is expecting sales in China to increase exponentially after the country made moves to require advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in all trucks and buses.
The government is expected to announce regulations requiring simple autonomous driving capabilities for large commercial vehicles – including alerting the driver when they veer out from a lane or are about to hit a pedestrian. The announcement may come later this week, sales director David Oberman said to reporters in Beijing.
“Very soon, China will follow the example of the European Union, Israel, Singapore and other countries and will make laws to make it mandatory to install such systems in buses and trucks”, said Oberman, adding that the firm’s annual sales of tens of thousands of advance driver assistance units in China will increase “exponentially” after that.
China is also expected to release preliminary standards for self-driving cars this year, enabling their deployment on highways and city roads. The country has been slower than some western markets in terms of autonomous driving systems, but their unified regulations may give them an edge to catch up sooner rather than later.
Mobileye is a supplier to firms such as Delphi Automotive and Magna International which then sell its products on to the automakers. It has become one of the main players in the autonomous vehicle market by selling hardware and software used by Audi, Tesla and more.
“Even though the Chinese automakers woke up a little late (to automated driving technology), now they are charging forward very, very ferociously and I believe they will catch up and pass the rest of the world very soon”, he said.
SOURCE: Reuters.
Larry Banks is a keen follower of technology and finance. He has worked for a variety of online publications, writing about a diverse range of topics including mobile networks, patents, and Internet video delivery technologies.