Ford and Mobileye buddy up to help cars see the world better
Ford's Co-Pilot360 will receive benefits from Mobileye technology, thanks to an expanded relationship between the two companies.
Upcoming Ford vehicles are in for a better set of digital eyes, thanks to Intel's Mobileye. The automaker announced Monday it will include Mobileye's EyeQ sensors within its Co-Pilot360 suite of active safety technology and driver assist systems to make them even smarter.
The sensors will directly support features like lane-keep assist, automatic emergency braking and adaptive cruise control. Along with the sensors, Mobileye will provide its vision processing software to Ford to include on future vehicles. Together, we should see a smart suite of active safety gear from Co-Pilot360.
The relationship is a pretty big step for both Ford and Mobileye. While the two have worked together in the past, this is the first time Ford will commit to the company's technology for an entire lifecycle of vehicles. The technology will first show up in the 2021 Ford F-150 and the Mustang Mach-E. Additional vehicles will also house the Mobileye tech, though the automaker didn't share additional details.
Ford could go further and added it's looking at the technology company's system called Roadbook. The software anonymously takes crowd-sourced data from vehicles to help build high-definition maps -- the kind experts continuously say fully self-driving cars will need to work autonomously. Today, vehicles can access the data to support driver assist technology and even some partially automated tech such as Ford's upcoming Active Drive Assist.
We'll likely hear about a final decision on Roadbook in the near future, but for now, we'll see the Mobileye name crop up in lots of new Fords as the Blue Oval digs into richer technology.
