Mobileye’s new ECU Series: Modularity from ADAS to AV

Since its creation, the Mobileye EyeQ™ chip has made roads safer by powering Mobileye’s advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Built for our vision-first approach, it powers lifesaving features such as automatic emergency braking and lane keeping. With over 200 million chips installed, our vision for an autonomous future is closer, as we introduce greater modularity between our automated and autonomous platforms.  

Now, we are taking that innovation further. Building upon Mobileye’s pedigree of ingenuity, safety, design, and scalability, we are turning that vision into an on-the-road reality. Designed for future scalability, Mobileye’s new Electronic Control Unit (ECU) series offers three product configurations to support various levels of driving automation. Powered by the latest generation Mobileye EyeQ™6H SoC– these three platforms allow car manufacturers to efficiently progress up the autonomous driving spectrum, providing drivers with safety and comfort, while reducing development and validation risks. 

Inside the ECU: The EyeQ advantage 

A major challenge in creating a series of scalable & modular advanced driving platforms is balancing flexibility and efficiency in its core. Mobileye EyeQ6H, our most advanced SoC’s distinct architecture was designed to minimize that tradeoff. By bringing fixed-functionality and general-purpose processing capabilities together, the EyeQ6H can accelerate a range of parallel computing functions such as executing demanding AI deep learning and processing over 1,000 frames per second captured by surround cameras. 

The EyeQ6H is then placed on a Mobileye designed and made board, which allows us to address automaker needs, create a smoother integration process, and offer greater adaptability to their product roadmap. 

One board to power the product roadmap 

That board is in the heart of our new ECU series, a shared primary board featuring two EyeQ6H chips and an integrated MCU. This compact yet powerful architecture provides automakers with the foundation for autonomous driving solutions, requiring only some adjustments to the future hardware and software design of the vehicle. 

By itself, the base configuration is Mobileye SuperVision™, our hands-off/eyes-on platform that is connected to 11 cameras and an optional radar. SuperVision enhances the driving experience by maneuvering and performing certain driving actions including navigate-on-pilot up to 130/Kmh with continuous driver oversight (where available, and subject to specifications, manual, ODD and law).  At just over five pounds and as big as a cereal box, the AI-powered system includes internal Advanced Parking functionalities inside the ECU and is built with durability by design. 

Eyes-off adds on  

By adding a secondary computing board to the SuperVision ECU, while keeping most of its design, we introduce Mobileye Chauffeur™ a hands-off/eyes-off platform (where available, and subject to specifications, manual, ODD and law) for consumer vehicles. The secondary board incorporating an additional EyeQ6H chip for additional functionality, also creates hardware and software redundancy. 

Mobileye Chauffeur introduces an additional layer of perception to its cameras - a network of radar and lidar sensors that visualize the surroundings and enable eyes-off driving within an operational design domain (ODD), allowing the vehicle to navigate its environment independently as the driver remains alert and ready to intervene. 

The two-board platform offers an additional layer of safety, with designed redundancy that enables the system to perform minimum-risk maneuvers if needed and to safely stop on the side of the road in case of a failure.  

Going driverless 

Mobileye Drive™ adds even more around the primary board, while removing one major component – the driver. Designed for Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), the platform features a total of four Mobileye EyeQ6H chips on the primary and secondary boards, connected to up to 13 cameras, imaging radars and lidars, enabling it to maneuver with no human driver. 

While Mobileye Drive’s purpose is meant for service providers and SuperVision and Chauffeur were designed primarily for consumer vehicles, when placing the three ECUs one next to the other it is easy to see  the shared hardware and software backbone powering all three. Built with modularity and scalability in mind the three systems share a similar shape, interface, connectivity, and of course software core, giving carmakers the opportunity to map their product roadmap in advance and move between the platforms in a more efficient manner. 

The new ECU series brings Mobileye's vision closer to reality, offering scalable platforms tailored to the many stages of the autonomous journey. Our solutions assist OEMs to deliver safer, smarter, and more adaptable vehicles, balancing performance and time to market from hands-off driving to eyes-off driving, to completely driverless.