On International Women's Day, Mobileye leaders reflect on innovation

Innovation thrives in an environment that encourages the exchange of ideas from all perspectives. While this is true any day of the year, International Women’s Day is a great opportunity to hear from some of our female leaders about how they see their work on some of Mobileye’s core technologies and products. 

“I love that we do something meaningful and that I feel involved in so much of what Mobileye does.” That is how Moran Molnar, Mobileye's newly appointed Chief of Product within the CTO Office, sees the benefit of her work. “There is never a dull moment, and our goals are always growing,” she said. As an engineer who works in product realms, Moran describes her day-to-day as the best of both worlds. “You need to be able to go into the technological side while also understanding the strategy,” she explained. “It's about being able to tell our story and what we bring to the world, but also being open to what our customers want and need and adapt accordingly.”  

Moran Molnar, Chief Product in the CTO Office, in the autonomous vehicle workshop

Moran has been at Mobileye for seven years, including when autonomous driving has gone from a side project, through proof of concept, to a spectrum of AV products we now know as Mobileye SuperVision™, Mobileye Chauffeur™, and Mobileye Drive™. Since then, Mobileye has become an established leader in the autonomous driving field. Last year, research groups Guidehouse Insights and ABI Research both placed Mobileye in the number one position in competitive assessments of AV technology suppliers. “I have had the privilege of watching this system develop and grow, and I feel I have made a meaningful contribution to it,” she added. “AV is the future of this company in my mind, along with other technologies, and being a part of that means something to me.”   

Moran is not the only one whose role is part of some of our biggest projects. Director of R&D Production Programs, Talia Berkowitz, relies on her background in computer science and business, and leads a team working alongside many automakers. “We work daily with engineers both in Mobileye and on the customer side, and our team's expertise is to deep dive into the technical details of multiple hardware, software and algorithmic domains.” she said.  

Talia Berkowitz, Director of R&D Production Programs

Talia works on Mobileye ADAS solutions, meaning her team works closely with car manufacturers and tier 1 suppliers, offering them new features to make driving safer. “These are not some plans for five years from now. Products we worked on two years ago are in cars right now, and the products we are working on now will soon be hitting the road,” she noted as she emphasized the importance of the customer-facing role. “We have to make adjustments to the products based on many factors. Specific automaker, geography, driving culture, etc., all play a role in our strategy and in matching our products to the customer’s needs.”  Today, Mobileye’s ADAS technology has been integrated into more than 170 million vehicles worldwide.   

Behind Mobileye’s driver-assist products is a host of unique technologies based on our expertise in machine learning and AI. Senior Director of Algorithms Dr. Ayelet Akselrod-Ballin is one of the leaders behind the software that goes into Mobileye-equipped vehicles. Ayelet joined Mobileye two years ago after over two decades in the industry and academia. During her time at the Weizmann Institute and Harvard, she focused on complex computer vision and machine learning problems, and today she applies her know-how to the algorithms behind Mobileye’s REM™ mapping system. She, together with the technological team, works toward building high-quality, efficient, and innovative algorithms that push the system forward, making it more accurate and providing a high-quality solution. “I have continued working in a similar machine learning deep learning domain as I did in academia. However, I enjoy the execution mode of the industry, the ability to influence a wide project, and work with a large group of talented people and seeing things you conjure become a reality.” Ayelet said.  

Dr. Ayelet Akselrod-Ballin, Senior Director of Algorithms in Mobileye mapping group

Another one of Mobileye’s impressive pieces of technology is its lidar project, which is dedicated to crafting a cutting-edge and cost-effective solution for the future of autonomous driving.  This future is set to be enabled by integrating FMCW lidar with our surround camera and radar sensors for hands-off/eyes-off driving. “It is important to see the big picture; even if you work on only one detail you have to see where it fits in,” said Principal Software Engineer Uvi (Ahuva) Kroizer. “I was one of the first people on this project and I am very proud that I designed and implemented key pieces of its software.” Uvi admits that when she was younger it was harder for her to make her voice heard, but today she sees herself as someone who brings people together, which she sees as one of the key enablers of a successful product. “I work in an interdisciplinary field, so I might not know everything there is to know,” she said jokingly, “but thanks to my experience I know how to bring people from different teams together. Interpersonal relations are important here, I need to represent my team, but also remember we all have the same goal of creating the best product.” 

Uvi (Ahuva) Kroizer, Principal Engineer in Mobileye lidar group, in front of art installation made with real EyeQ chips

These four exceptional women provided us with a fascinating glimpse into what it takes to build the bridge towards autonomous driving. At Mobileye, our success is not only in our industry expertise, but also in guiding product development from concept to production – largely thanks to the bright minds behind the technology. Our success is in threading technological knowledge and business experience together, while transforming theoretical concepts into tangible reality. Every day, we navigate through many challenges together in pursuit of our vision: safer vehicles worldwide.