Porsche has announced that it will be using Mobileye’s Supervision ADAS technology from 2025, marking a significant win for the Israeli company in the assisted-driving technology race. While the deal may not seem earth-shattering given Porsche’s annual sales of just over 300,000, the significance of the partnership goes beyond mere numbers. Mobileye founder and CEO Amnon Shashua believes that Supervision is a redefinition of premium, and given Mobileye’s track record in the field of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and Porsche’s high status within the Volkswagen Group, this partnership has the potential to be huge.

Mobileye is one of three smart-chip companies, along with Qualcomm and Nvidia, that car makers are leaning on to deliver software-powered features that they believe will become the new differentiator. However, Mobileye has been on the back foot in recent months as Qualcomm’s move into ADAS led to it snagging business from its rival. BMW announced that it was switching to Qualcomm for assisted systems for cars on its 2025 Neue Klasse EV platform, and in January, Volkswagen Group software division Cariad also announced that it was moving to Qualcomm for its next-generation SSP platform.

However, Mobileye is fighting back against its rival Qualcomm with Supervision. The technology uses 11 cameras, the latest EyeQ5 chip, and Mobileye’s intelligence to deliver level-two-plus autonomy (so hands-off but not eyes-off driving). Shashua believes that this deal with Porsche opens the door to much broader volumes in the entire Volkswagen Group. He said, “A success like this really means, I believe, a very, very long-term relationship because the system is so complex and the performance is so high that once it’s in the car, you don’t go and replace it by some other supplier.”

Mobileye’s truly clever trick has been to harvest data from the more recent EyeQ camera-and-chip combos to create a crowd-sourced high-definition map called Road Experience Management (REM), that crowd being cars built by its customers, including the VW Group. This means that millions of cars are building up Mobileye’s knowledge of not just road networks but also how drivers are using them. VW is already using that so-called ‘swarm data’ generated by REM to improve the intelligence of its assisted driving systems, for example placing cars within lanes more naturally.

Supervision is the next step to full autonomous driving. Shashua is targeting 2026/2027 for eyes-off operations for Mobileye’s Chauffeur product, which adds radar and lidar to the 360deg camera of Supervision. He said in April that two car companies are testing Chauffeur. The fact remains car makers are still worried that smart suppliers like Mobileye will take a substantial cut of high-margin software revenue that they feel should be theirs, especially as software does become more of a differentiator.

For now, however, Shashua is confident that car companies can’t replicate what he has. “You need to source what makes sense and develop what makes sense,” he said. “The stuff that Mobileye has doesn’t make sense to insource.”