Intel earmarks $250mn for autonomous driving tech

AI and autonomous vehicles are the two hottest ideas in the tech industry currently. From Apple to Google, every big name in the industry is trying hands at autonomous driving and exploring the realm of machine learning.

Making a similar move, the world’s biggest chipmaker, Intel has announced that it will set aside at least $250 million for investments in automotive startups that are designing technology needed to support fully autonomous cars.

The $250 million of new investments will be made by Intel Capital Foundation and focus on startups working on open-platform technologies and areas including cyber security. The goal is to “fund startups that are trying to build security in this space and to drive innovation and collaboration across the industry.”

“These investments will drive the development of technologies that push the boundaries of next-generation connectivity, communication, context awareness, deep learning, security, safety and more,” the company said in an official statement.

Speaking at the Automobility LA conference in Los Angeles, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said that he wants to foster a high degree of collaboration across the auto and tech industries for car-to-car communication standards and for managing vast quantities of data created by self-driving vehicles.

Krzanich said that besides the variety of sensors, sonar, LIDAR and cameras that will come embedded in autonomous cars, the industry also needs to be prepared for the data deluge with over 4TB of data coming from a single car each day.

Intel’s announcement comes after a flurry of acquisitions related to autonomous vehicle technology earlier this year. In April it bought Italy-based Yogitech and Arynga to focus on over-the-air software updates in vehicles. Then in May, it purchased Itseez, a maker of computer vision algorithms.

Notably, Intel also announced a partnership in July to develop self-driving car technology with BMW and camera-based sensor maker Mobileye.