JERUSALEM — Chipmaker Intel Corp. said it acquired Israeli public transit app developer Moovit for about $900 million to expand its portfolio of self-driving technologies.
The deal, announced Monday after leaking out in media reports on Sunday, will help Intel’s autonomous driving unit Mobileye develop services like self-driving “robotaxis” by using traffic and public transportation data collected from Moovit’s more than 800 million users in 102 countries, Intel said.
“Moovit is an acquisition that fills some very critical gaps that we have going forward,” Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua told Reuters.
Moovit will remain independent and its technology will be integrated with a goal of deploying the first robotaxis in some cities by early 2022, Shashua said.
Last month Moovit launched an emergency mobilization service, which was created for transit agencies and enterprises during the COVID-19 pandemic. The technology transforms vehicle fleets into an on-demand service to get essential employees safely to work and has been implemented in a number of cities by large corporations.
Intel has made significant investments already in Israel, having acquired autonomous vehicle technology provider Mobileye for $15.3 billion in 2017. In December it bought Israeli artificial intelligence firm Habana Labs for $2 billion.
