Intel Corp’s Mobileye unit plans to build and deploy self-driving electric shuttle vehicles with its partners in the United States in 2024, in a bid to scale up its automated driving systems beyond taxis and delivery vehicles, executives told Reuters.
Mobileye, Benteler EV Systems and Beep will launch the on-demand driverless shuttles, which will feature 12 to 14 seats and no steering wheel or pedal.
The shuttles will be operated in “contained geo-fenced areas” where speed limits are 35 miles an hour or less, Hinrich Woebcken, advisory board member for Beep, a mobility service provider, said.
They expect to have a couple of hundred of the vehicles on U.S. roads in the first year of their deployment, with a goal to boost the number to between 10,000 and 15,000 globally, the executives said.