Chip maker Intel announced it has acquired urban mobility app developer Moovit for $900 million. Moovit is a mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) solutions company, best known for its urban mobility app that “offers travelers…multimodal trip planning by combining public transportation, bicycle and scooter services, ride-hailing, and car-sharing.” This acquisition will help Intel’s Mobileye “achiev[e] its plan to become a complete mobility provider, including robotaxi services.”
“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,” Bob Swan, Intel CEO, said. “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 has at least 800 million users worldwide, across 3,100 cities in 102 countries. Mobileye provides a vision solution for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) being used on 60 million vehicles from 25 auto partners. Intel “is investing and expanding to serve new data-rich market opportunities, including the fast-growing market for ADAS, data and MaaS technologies.” When the acquisition is complete, Moovit will join Mobileye, but keep its brand and current partnerships. Intel wants to use Moovit’s technology to grow its services, including what Mobileye offers. For example, “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…key transit agencies and operators.”
“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,” Professor Amnon Shashua, CEO of Mobileye, said. “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.”
Moovit uses public transportation information and crowd-sourced data to provide real-time planning for the best travel route. As a result, this includes information where public data is not available. Moovit provides this traffic data to third parties, such as Uber.
“We are excited to join forces with Mobileye and lead the future revolution of new mobility services,” Nir Erez, Moovit co-founder and CEO, said. “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.”
Intel acquired Mobileye in 2017 and invested $50 million in the company in 2018. This acquisition appears to be the latest move to help Intel create its robotaxis. Intel estimates that in 2030 robotaxis will be a $160 billion market.
