Moovit becomes part of Intel and joins forces with Mobileye towards driverless future

Intel announced yesterday it has acquired Moovit, a mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) solutions company, for approximately $900 million ($840 million net of Intel Capital equity gain) and therefore brings Intel’s Mobileye closer to achieving its plan to become a complete mobility provider, including robotaxi services, which is forecast to be an estimated $160 billion opportunity by 2030. Mobileye was taken over by Intel in March 2017. Both Mobileye and Moovit have been founded in Israel.

Moovit is known for its urban mobility application that offers travelers around the world the best multimodal trip planning by combining public transportation, bicycle and scooter services, ride-hailing, and car-sharing.

The acquisition’s goal is the development of autonomous mobility services. In recent years, in the public transport sector, autonomous bus pilots are multiplying, and several manufacturers already announced autonomous bus fleets launch within a couple years from now.

Moovit in Intel group

Moovit has established its leadership in the MaaS space with more than 800 million users and services in 3,100 cities across 102 countries. Today, Mobileye is the leading automotive solutions partner that enables advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) deployed on nearly 60 million vehicles with more than 25 automaker partners.

With this acquisition, Mobileye will be able to use Moovit’s large proprietary transportation dataset to optimize predictive technologies based on customer demand and traffic patterns, as well as tap into Moovit’s transit data repository of more than 7,500 key transit agencies and operators, and improve the consumer experience for more than 800 million users worldwide. Moovit’s consumer applications and user experience will continue under its own brand.

Moovit to join forces with Intel’s Mobileye

Intel is investing and expanding to serve new data-rich market opportunities, including the fast-growing market for ADAS, data and MaaS technologies, which together represent, according to the company itself, an opportunity totaling more than $230 billion by 2030. Upon close, Moovit will join the Mobileye business while retaining its brand and existing partnerships.

Autonomous driving, the future ahead

Mobileye’s business model encompasses the entire automated driving value chain, including the front-facing camera that powers most of today’s ADAS, conditional autonomy – also known as level 2+ – and the self-driving system (SDS) for self-driving shuttles and robotaxis as well as consumer autonomous vehicles (AVs). Mobileye has strong performance in every one of these categories with advanced vision sensing technology, crowd-sourced mapping capability (REM) and the Responsibility-Sensitive Safety (RSS) driving policy.

By working together as part of Intel and Mobileye, Moovit will advance the company’s MaaS strategy and the global adoption of autonomous transportation.

Moovit and Mobileye, founded in Israel

Moovit was founded in 2012 and is based in Tel Aviv, Israel, with approximately 200 employees. Moovit combines information from public transit operators and authorities with live information from the user community to offer travelers a real-time picture of the best route for their journey. In the past 24 months, Moovit has achieved a seven-times increase in users, Moovit points out.

Moovit and Intel, revolutioning transportation

“Intel’s purpose is to create world-changing technology that enriches the lives of every person on Earth, and our Mobileye team delivers on that purpose every day,” said Bob Swan, Intel CEO. “Mobileye’s ADAS technology is already improving the safety of millions of cars on the road, and Moovit accelerates their ability to truly revolutionize transportation – reducing congestion and saving lives – as a full-stack mobility provider.”

“Moovit’s massive global user base, proprietary transportation data, global editors community, strong partnerships with key transit and mobility ecosystem partners, and highly skilled team is what makes them a great investment,” said Professor Amnon Shashua, CEO of Mobileye. “Moovit is a strong brand trusted by hundreds of millions of people globally. Together, with Mobileye’s extensive capabilities in mapping and self-driving technology, we will be able to accelerate our timeline to transform the future of mobility.”

“We are excited to join forces with Mobileye and lead the future revolution of new mobility services,” said Nir Erez, Moovit co-founder and CEO. “Mobility is a basic human right, and as cities become more crowded, urban mobility becomes more difficult. Combining the daily mobility habits and needs of millions of Moovit users with the state-of-the-art, safe, affordable and eco-friendly transportation enabled by self-driving vehicles, we will be able to make cities better places to live in. We share this vision and look forward to making it a reality as part of Mobileye”.