Sources: BMW, Intel, and Mobileye are working together on autonomous car technology
Context & Ripple Effects
This Bloomberg report is the founding document of what became one of the auto industry's defining autonomy alliances: BMW supplying the vehicles, Intel the compute, and Mobileye the perception stack. Within months the trio had committed to testing 40 autonomous vehicles in urban areas from late 2017, targeting fully autonomous cars by 2021.
The alliance then compounded rather than stayed fixed — parts supplier Delphi was brought in, and Fiat Chrysler joined as a second automaker, while BMW separately put money into Nauto alongside Toyota and Allianz to share safety data. Each addition widened the moat around a shared platform instead of a single-company program.
First-order effects
- Intel immediately gains an anchor automotive customer for its in-car computing ambitions, while Mobileye moves up from component supplier to platform co-owner inside a premium OEM's roadmap.
Second-order effects
- Rival automakers face a build-or-join decision: Fiat Chrysler chose to join BMW's camp rather than fund a standalone program, and suppliers like Delphi now compete for seats at alliance tables instead of selling parts into one-off projects.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, autonomous driving consolidates into a handful of multi-company platforms — OEMs, chipmakers, and perception specialists bound together — with data-sharing arrangements like the Nauto investment pulling insurers into the same ecosystem.
The trend: Autonomous vehicle development is shifting from solo corporate programs to shared industry alliances, where compute, perception, and fleet access are pooled across competitors.