Mobileye AV in New York City Trial (Company Pic)
Israel’s Mobileye, a company that develops automated driving systems, may just have to sometime soon move its operations out of the country. That is according to reports that the company’s founder Amnon Shashua claimed that the company is under pressure from European authorities to do just that because of dissatisfaction with the judicial reforms planned by the current government of Israel led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Apparently, the European Union is concerned about the storage of people’s personal data in Israel should the judicial reform plan be passed. And this comes after many already warned that foreign investments in Israel would dry up should the Nteanyahu government push through its reforms.
Massive protests have rocked Israel over the past few months, ever since Justice Minister Yariv Levin revealed the government’s plans to alter the nature of Israel’s judicial system. The government’s judicial reform plan would greatly curtail the power of Israel’s Supreme Court to nullify legislation passed by the Knesset and also limit the authority of Israel’s attorney general. The opposition charges this would harm Israel’s democracy, eroding foreign confidence in the country and hurting its economy. And this is why the country is now on the brink of what some are describing as the biggest societal clash in Israel’s history.
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In 2017, Intel bought out Mobileye for $15.3billion. Last October the company held a second IPO on the NASDAQ with a $16.7 billion valuation. The company floated 41,000,000 shares of its Class A common stock at an initial public offering price of $21.00 per share.
Founded in 1999, Mobileye offers autonomous driving and driver-assist technologies, harnessing “world-renowned expertise in computer vision, machine learning, mapping, and data analysis.” The idea is simple: warning systems alert drivers of a possible collision. Eventually, the idea is to have entirely self-driving cars that can avoid accidents entirely.
Amnon Shashua is an Israeli success story. He founded Mobileye and saw it through that company’s acquisition by Intel. Shashua still serves as Mobileye CEO and President while also as a senior vice president at Intel. The 63 year old is also is a computer science professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
