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OEM, Autonomous Platform Developer, and Fleet Manager: The Perfect MaaS Joint Venture |
NEWS |
In October 2018, Volkswagen, Mobileye, and Champion Motors announced a Joint Venture (JV) called “New Mobility in Israel” to deploy a fully driverless ride-hailing service in Israel, with development and limited rollout scheduled for 2019 followed by full operational deployment in 2022. Volkswagen will provide an electric vehicle platform into which Mobileye will integrate a “turnkey” autonomous platform consisting of the necessary hardware and software components to enable full automation, while Champion Motors will handle fleet management and maintenance.
The triangular partnership sets out a blueprint for how Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), autonomous platform developers, and fleet management providers can cooperate to bring autonomous vehicles to market and to pursue new revenue opportunities in the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) market.
Emerging Strategies |
IMPACT |
The announcement by this mobility-oriented JV not only gives insight into the shape of future MaaS deployments but also gives a clearer understanding of the strategies held by the constituent members:
Further, the announcement confirms that Mobileye’s ambitions for autonomous driving stretch all the way to the top. Mobileye has always adopted a scalable philosophy in their autonomous technology development, preferring to enable “something everywhere” rather than “everything somewhere.” As such, Mobileye has aggressively pursued a vision-first strategy, shying away from any reliance on technologies such as LiDAR, LiDAR-based maps, Vehicle to Everything (V2X), or 5G, often giving the impression that Mobileye’s ultimate target is high volume and semi-autonomous—rather than the smaller-volume—fully driverless vehicle market opportunity. However, this JV confirms that Mobileye is willing and able to pursue fully driverless robotaxi applications.
Recurring Revenues for All JV Members? |
RECOMMENDATIONS |
The development of autonomous technology is radically overhauling the automotive ecosystem, resulting in far greater engagement between OEMs and Tier 2 suppliers as well as triangular development models including OEMs, Tier 1s, and component suppliers for system development, integration, and validation. This transformation is set to continue with the deployment of robotaxi mobility services.
In the traditional structure, component and engineering services suppliers depend on high shipment volumes on behalf of the ultimate OEM customer to drive revenues. Therefore, the shift toward higher utilization of shared vehicles represents a significant threat to any supplier who simply relies on ever-increasing shipments of consumer vehicles for profitability. By establishing themselves as partners in a joint venture operating a shared mobility service, hardware and software component suppliers (such as Mobileye) can gain access to new, ongoing revenue streams tied to vehicle utilization rather than new vehicle shipments.