While not all is rosy for the hi-tech giant - the company is currently battling accusations of insider trading - it is poised to change the automotive world.
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICHUpdated: SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 13:36Mobileye co-founders Amnon Shashua (left) and Ziv Aviram.(photo credit: COURTESY MOBILEYE)
When people across the globe manage to get around almost completely without road accidents or owning their own cars, and when blind people are able to access information and identify faces easily, they will have two Israelis to thank. Hebrew University of Jerusalem computer scientist Prof.Amnon Shashua and businessman Ziv Aviram deserve all the credit. The two partners, who co-founded Mobileye Vision Technology Ltd. and Orcam, became household names in March of this year when Intel announced that they had agreed to a $15.3 billion takeover of Mobileye.Shashua studied at Tel Aviv University, the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, while Aviram was the successful CEO of three well-known Israeli companies (Gali, Keter and Attrakzia) before co-founding companies with Shashua. After the Intel deal was signed, Aviram resigned from Mobileye.While not all is rosy for the hi-tech giant - the company is currently battling accusations of insider trading - it is poised to change the automotive world.The company develops vision-based advanced driver-assistance systems that, using algorithms and a processor chip, issue warnings to drivers about potential crashes with others and pedestrians.But at the same time, the company looked further ahead – to a time when people will get where they want to in vehicles without driving them by themselves. We will sit safely in autonomous cars, like taxis but without a cabbie, and not have to worry about being involved in an accident.Since the State of Israel was founded, some 23,500 citizens have been killed in war and terrorist attacks, while 35,000 have died on the roads.The economy and manpower patterns in every country on Earth will be changed forever – and not only the reduction of deaths is in store but also the prevention of many injuries.Autonomous Car Driving - MobileyeOrCam, which the pair established seven years ago, developed and produced a small camera-and-artificial-intelligence device attached to one’s eyeglasses that can read print (including products, money and street signs) aloud to the vision-disabled person. It can also identify the faces of people the blind person is in contact with and immediately notify the wearer who is facing him or her.
