Hyundai Motor may benefit from Tesla's divorce from Mobileye

By Jhoo Dong-chan

Hyundai Motor and other local automakers may benefit from a severed partnership between Tesla Motors and its autopilot parts supplier Mobileye, according to industry analysts, Sunday.

Mobileye supplies vision-based advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) detecting objects to prevent collisions while driving. Its leading-edge optical vision technologies have been the root of global carmakers’ developments in autonomous driving systems.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Mobileye recently ended its partnership with Tesla after a weeks-long “war of words” over a traffic fatality, after a Tesla driver in Florida was killed while relying on autopilot to drive his vehicle.

Industry insiders say Mobileye’s departure from the partnership would be a severe blow to the U.S.-based electric carmaker since the Jerusalem-based company has supplied important components for Tesla’s semiautonomous autopilot system.

A Tesla official immediately rebutted, blaming Mobileye. “After learning that Tesla would be deploying this product, Mobileye attempted to force Tesla to discontinue this development, pay them more, and use their products in future hardware,” the official said.

A series of events over the partnership’s breakdown may be an opportunity for Korea’s largest carmaker to narrow down the technology gap in autonomous driving systems.

“Mobileye supplies optical vision chips with motion detection algorithms in Hyundai Motor’s recent lineup with an autopilot system,” said an official of Hyundai Mobis, the carmaker’s affiliate supplying parts modules. “Accounting for almost 80 percent in related technologies in the global market, Mobileye’s ADAS is helping Hyundai Motor’s development in autonomous driving systems.”

A local media report Friday said that Mobileye and Hyundai Mobis signed a partnership, under which the former supplies chips and algorithms used in ADAS. It said the partnership will shorten the time to catch up to the carmaker’s global rivals in related technologies by two or three years.

Hyundai Motor’s latest lineup with semiautonomous autopilot systems, including the Genesis EQ900 sedan, are all equipped with Mobileye’s optical chips, an official added.

German premium carmaker BMW also announced last month that it will develop high-performance autonomous driving vehicles jointly with Mobileye by 2021.

Last month, Tesla opened its official website and started accepting preorders in Korea for its three models. It is also expected to open its first showroom at Starfield Hanam in Hanam, Gyeonggi Province, in November.