Nissan, Mobileye Team Up on Maps for Self-Driving Cars

After a demonstration of an autonomous Nissan Leaf navigating London using Mobileye mapping tech, the two companies have struck a deal. It brings us a step closer to a global road map for self-driving cars in every part of the world, a goal that Mobileye is calling the Global RoadBook.

Mobileye is an Israeli tech firm founded in 1999 that’s one of the world’s leading innovators in autonomous vehicle technology. Tech giant Intel announced last month that it was buying Mobileye for $15.3 billion, which is slated to be the largest buyout in the history of Israel’s high-tech industry. This deal with Nissan is its first major move since Intel’s announcement.

Mobileye Chairman Amnon Shashua said of the deal with Nissan, "We now have significant commitments from multiple global automakers to generate and share data from camera-equipped ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) vehicles.”

As far as timeline, we know the next-generation Nissan Leaf, which is expected to come out this September, will have ProPilot technology—Nissan’s autonomous tech debut in the U.S. Last we heard, Nissan has plans for full autonomy by 2023; as these technologies often show up in high-end vehicles first, don’t be surprised if early forms of self-driving tech start creeping into the Infiniti lineup in the next few years.

Mobileye is also working with BMW and Volkswagen on their autonomous car efforts. About one-fifth of all the cars sold in the world last year were either a Nissan, BMW, or Volkswagen product. That puts Mobileye in a strong position in the autonomous car technology arms race.