Mobileye, which makes an aftermarket early crash warning system, said it received $400 million in new financing, making it the highest valued private tech company in its home base of Israel.
The company now has a total value of about $1.5 billion and plans to develop technology for self-driving cars, competing with Google. The company also plans to go public in about 18 months it told The New York Times.
For now, Mobileye supplies driver safety equipment in car models such as the BMW models 5-7 Series, Volvo’s S80, XC70 and V70 models, Buick’s Lucerne and Cadillac’s DTS and STS models, said Geek Time.
Aftermarket retailers know the company for its early crash warning systems such as the 5-series model with lane departure warning.
Mobileye is working on a self-driving car and hopes to produce one by 2016. CEO Ziv Aviram believes fully autonomous cars won’t be in use until 15 to 20 years from now. But systems that take over for drivers in a traffic jam (and free you to focus on other things) could become available in the near future.
One of Mobileye’s new investors is Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Others are BlackRock, Fidelity Management and Wellington Management; and Sailing Capital.
Source: The New York Times
