By Arye Green/TPS • 27 August, 2019
Mobileye, a leading Israeli autonomous vehicle company, on Tuesday commenced construction of its new R&D facility in the Har Hotzvim high-tech complex in Jerusalem with a grand groundbreaking ceremony.
The ceremony was attended by Professor Amnon Shashua, CEO of Mobileye, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mayor of Jerusalem Moshe Lion and Minister of Economy Eli Cohen.
The massive new development center will be built on 128,000 Square meters (approx. 31.6 acres) and host 2,700 Mobileye employees. The new building will significantly expand upon the company’s operations in Jerusalem.
Mobileye was founded in Jerusalem in 1999 by Shashua of the Hebrew University, and Ziv Aviram. In March 2017, Intel bought Mobileye for $15.3 billion. This is the largest acquisition of an Israeli company to date and was a significant source of revenue for the Israeli government that year.
Mobileye develops vision-based advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), providing warnings for collision prevention and mitigation in over 40 million vehicles worldwide. Mobileye is a leader in the autonomous vehicle market and has partnered with 13 automakers to enable autonomous driving.
Cohen said at the ceremony that “this cornerstone-laying by Mobileye is an important step for the establishment of Israel as a world leader in the autonomous vehicle market, and is indicative of our technological might.”
Lion put the event in its historical context and touched upon its significance to Jerusalem.
“Today, we build the infrastructure of Jerusalem as the city of the future. We are laying down the cornerstone for Jerusalem as the technological capital of Israel, in its fourth millennium of existence,” he said.
Netanyahu celebrated the success of Mobileye and the genius of Israeli high-tech as a whole while outlining global economic trends.
“If you compare the ten biggest companies a decade ago to the list today you will see half of them are gone, because they were energy companies, and today, products of the mind are much more valuable. They are undoubtedly worth more, and reflect Israel’s special capabilities. That is why Israel leads the way in the global economic revolution, combining AI, big data and communications,” said Netanyahu.
He also touched upon the latest security threats in the region. “We are building the future, but there are those who want to destroy everything we have built and take us to a dark place,” Netanyahu said.
He warned Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah to “calm down, and be careful what you say or do,” in light of his recent threats against Israel.