Tesla Motors will end its partnership with Mobileye after the fatal Tesla Model S accident in May. Mobileye is an Israeli technology company that develops collision prevention and mitigation system. It is also the provider of image recognition chip for its semi-autonomous driving system.
Even though Tesla Motors and Mobileye decided to end their partnership, the Israeli company will still provide technical support, upgrade and maintenance to current Tesla cars, said Chairman Amnon Shashua during Mobileye quarterly earnings report last Tuesday. He further stated that it was best for the company to cut ties with Tesla Motors to protect Mobileye reputation.
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, during the event at Gigafactory outside Reno, expressed that he was not worried about what happened. He seemed to have expected this event saying, "Us parting ways was somewhat inevitable." He assured though that the company is committed to autonomy and they will be able to move forward without Mobileye, USA Today reported.
Trip Chowdhry, an analyst at Global Equities Research, was not concerned for Tesla. He said that Mobileye cameras have limited field of view which made it not suitable for self-driving cars. According to Chowdhry, Tesla Motors need to replace Mobileye system with a more advanced system.
Mobileye admitted that its system is not yet capable of detecting cross traffic. However, they are expecting that their system will be ready to handle cross traffic by 2018, Engadget reported.
The Tesla Model S accident happened when the automobile driven by Joshua Brown crashed into a truck when the car's sensor failed to detect the trailer crossing the highway. The accident is currently being investigated by National Transportation Safety Board and National highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Tesla Motors will still continue to develop and test a system that will assist drivers in keeping cars in the lane and maintain the car's speed depending on the traffic condition. However, the company keeps on reminding Tesla car owners to focus on driving even though the Autopilot system is turned on. One of the ultimate goals of the company remains the same which is to develop a safe self-driving system. Watch the Tesla Model S accident in May video.