I only have eyes for you —

Tesla and Mobileye call it quits; will the car company build its own sensors?

The divorce is probably fallout from May's fatal Tesla Model S crash.

Mobileye Co-founder, CTO, and Chairman Amnon Shashua speaks at a Volkswagen press event at CES 2016.
Mobileye Co-founder, CTO, and Chairman Amnon Shashua speaks at a Volkswagen press event at CES 2016.
Getty Images | David Becker

If you're a carmaker looking to give your vehicles some computer vision, your first port of call is probably the Israeli company Mobileye. As we detailed recently, Mobileye's EyeQ system-on-a-chip can be found inside most semi-autonomous cars on our roads, Tesla included. In fact, Mobileye CTO Amnon Shashua gave a lengthy technical presentation at CES in January on how Mobileye's use of deep neural networks enable Tesla's Autopilot functions. (Here's a deep dive into the tech over at WCCFTech.) But on Tuesday, Shashua announced during a Q2 financial results conference call that the relationship between the two companies will end.

In a statement to Ars, Mobileye said that its work with Tesla will not extend past the EyeQ3, the current system-on-a-chip found in Autopilot-capable Model S and Model X electric vehicles. Mobileye will continue to support current vehicles, including software fixes for crash avoidance and auto-steering.

"Nevertheless, in our view, moving toward more advanced autonomy is a paradigm shift both in terms of function complexity and the need to ensure an extremely high level of safety," the company wrote. "There is much at stake here, to Mobileye’s reputation and to the industry at large. Mobileye believes that achieving this objective requires partnerships that go beyond the typical OEM / supplier relationship, such as our recently announced collaboration with BMW and Intel. Mobileye will continue to pursue similar such relationships."

The divorce is believed to be fallout over the respective responses to a fatal crash involving a Tesla Model S that occurred in Florida in May. Whether or not this means Tesla will design and build its own sensors is unclear. The company had not replied to Ars' request for a comment at the time of writing.

"Mobileye is showing they're a company who does not like innovation," George Hotz told Ars. Hotz is the man behind comma.ai, a startup that is developing an aftermarket autonomous driving kit that's due before the end of the year. Comma.ai was recently one of only two teams to complete a fully autonomous lap of Sonoma Raceway during the world's first autonomous track day. Hotz also famously turned down a job at Tesla, preferring instead to "crush Mobileye." (Interestingly, at that time the two companies' relationship was such that Tesla rushed to the defense of Mobileye.)

Hotz told us:

I don't know who ended the relationship, but you could look at both their stocks—I think Telsa is down 0.9 percent and Mobileye is down 9 percent. Mobileye doesn't want to innovate. Their business model is to work with regulators to lower the star safety ratings of cars that don't have Mobileye in them, in order to force auto manufacturers to buy their chips. In some way I don't even fault Mobileye for this, I fault the automakers; for really they are not companies that are innovative at all. Some of them are better than others but some of them seem very committed to this idea of "brand" and "my dad drove car X so I'm going to buy car X because we're a car X kind of family." That's a bygone world. Today's world is about delivering an incredible experience, and you have companies like Tesla and Apple who can do that.

The loss of Tesla as a customer isn't great news for Mobileye, but it's also unlikely to be the end of the world for the company. At the beginning of July, Mobileye announced that it was partnering with Intel and BMW to build a fully autonomous vehicle to go on sale in five years. And in addition to the EyeQ platform, Mobileye is developing a machine-readable HD mapping platform called Road Experience Management. Nissan, General Motors, and Volkswagen have already signed up for Road Experience.

Channel Ars Technica