June 16 (Reuters) - Mobileye Global said on Tuesday it would launch its own robotaxi service in the United States next year, putting the self-driving technology supplier in direct competition with some of the very customers it serves.
The Jerusalem, Israel-based company, which provides advanced driver-assistance systems to automakers, plans to deploy about 100 robotaxis in a major U.S. city starting in 2027, with ambitions to scale the fleet to roughly 17,000 over the next five years. Its shares rose
more than 4% in premarket trading.
The move places Mobileye in a fiercely competitive U.S. market that includes Alphabet's Waymo, Tesla, and Amazon's Zoox, as rising investment in driverless technology intensifies the race for control over deployment and revenue.
"Operating our own service allows us to accelerate adoption, gain direct operational experience, and showcase the full potential of autonomous mobility," Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua said.
The company said it would build this service by combining Mobileye Drive, its self-driving system, with the digital infrastructure of its Moovit subsidiary, which provides urban mobility data, trip-planning tools and a global passenger network.
While Mobileye will own and operate the ride-hailing services under a unified business division, it will collaborate with external vehicle platform makers and fleet integration partners rather than manufacturing its own vehicles.
The company said the initiative does not change its supply commitments to customers, and that direct robotaxi operations would complement its existing business and run alongside it.
U.S. ride-hailing platform Lyft said last year it would deploy fully autonomous robotaxis as soon as 2026 in Dallas, powered by Mobileye's technology.
Mobileye raised its annual revenue forecast in April, helped by strong demand for its chips and software as automakers restocked inventories after a prolonged glut brought on by a pandemic-related surplus.
(Reporting by Anhata Rooprai in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
