A new self-driving vehicle service company called Mobileye, owned by Intel, is set to soon deploy a set of shuttles in U.S. destinations according to a Reuters report this morning.
Reuters reports that large passenger vehicles with 12 to 14 seats will go up to 35 mph in “geo-fenced areas” specially laid out for transportation.
Other delivery vehicles are slated for arrival on American streets next year. At the same time, Mobileye aims to put some of these vehicles in operation in Israel and Germany.
Intel bought Mobileye in 2017 for $15 billion.
As for the delivery vehicles, Reuters reveals that Mobileye is working with a company called Udelv on this effort.
“The multi-stop electric delivery vehicle features a proprietary, self-contained, hot swappable modular cargo pod called the uPod,” write spokespersons in a press release. “It can carry up to 2,000 pounds of goods, make up to 80 stops per cycle at highway speeds, cover ranges between 160 and 300 miles per run depending on the battery pack option and be operated by Udelv’s mobile apps to seamlessly schedule, deliver, track and retrieve packages.”
Udelv top brass are ebullient.
“This is a historic day for the transportation and logistics industries,” said Daniel Laury, Udelv CEO and co-founder in a press statement. “The Transporter is transformative for two of the world’s largest industries: automotive and logistics. It was created to solve two great challenges of commercial fleets: the shortage of drivers and the electrification of fleets.”
Although self-driving cars are generally new, these Udelv models have some testing behind them, having been on the road for a while.
“In 2018, Udelv made its debut in California with the first-ever autonomous delivery on public roads,” spokespersons write. “Since then, Udelv has completed over 20,000 deliveries for multiple merchants in California, Arizona and Texas. Udelv aims at having 50,000 units of the Transporter, driven by Mobileye, on public roads by 2028, with the first Transporters being commercially deployed in 2023.”
In light of all of this, look to see if the effort propels Intel, a blue-chip stock, to new heights amid the profound microchip scarcity that’s holding firms back in that sector.