Israel as a 'Silicon Valley' for automotive technology

The symbol of Israel’s brief flirtation with automotive manufacturing during the 1960s and 1970s was considered a delicacy by the country’s camels.?

While the story of hungry camels gnawing on cars was just a rumor, the first “blue and white” carmaker, shuttered its manufacturing operations in 1981. Today, the modest Israeli vehicle manufacturing industry serves primarily military purposes.??

With more than 500 transportation start-ups, innovation hubs established by many of the world’s leading automobile manufacturers, and soaring investment Israel has secured its place as a veritable driving force of automotive innovation.

Mobileye , known for leading the mobility revolution with its autonomous-driving and driver-assist technologies, is a true testament to Israel’s automotive pioneering spirit. Additionally, in 2017, Intel Acquired the Jerusalem-based vision technology start-up for $15.3 billion in 2017.??

Several automakers like Ford, Renault, Nissan, and General Motors have chosen Israel for their research center, making the small market a tech hotbed for automotive technology. Vehicle manufacturers like BMW and Hyundai and auto component makers like BOSCH and Lear have opened their R&D centers in Israel.

Israel has had the world’s highest density of tech startups for more than half a decade. The small country is the home of more than 6000 technology startups and second to Silicon Valley when it comes to Tech Innovation.

Here are a few of Israel's leading automative solutions:

Via powers the world’s most advanced public mobility systems. Via has developed innovative solutions for on-demand and pre-scheduled transit? In November 2021, Via closed their financing round at a valuation of $3.5B, and is now raising $110M to expand its TransitTech portfolio. As part of this portfolio expansion, in March 2023, Via acquired CityMapper to be integrated into Via’s TransitTech platform.??

Hailo ’s breakthrough AI accelerators and vision processors are uniquely designed to accelerate embedded deep learning applications on edge devices. The Hailo’s 8-edge AI accelerator’s unprecedented performance of up to 26 Teraflops, is designed specifically for running embedded AI applications efficiently on edge devices Operations per Second (TOPS). The chip uses a novel architecture that uses the fundamental properties of neural networks, enabling the cost-effective deployment of ADAS today, as well as paving the path for the development of autonomous vehicles in the future.

Innoviz Technologies is a leading manufacturer of high-performance, solid-state LiDAR (Laser imaging detection and ranging) sensors, and perception software capable of bringing vision to virtually any environment. In the automotive sector, InnovizOne produces real-time 3D images of the vehicle’s surroundings to increase vehicle performance and accuracy.?

Ride Vision is a? rider assistance system designed for motorbikes and their riders. Ride Vision’s system has two small cameras mounted on the front and rear of the vehicle and a computer system that monitors the road throughout the ride using a patented algorithm to detect possible collision threats and alert the rider in real-time without disturbing the rider's concentration while riding.

@GoToGlobal is a multimodal shared-mobility company offering shared cars, vans, mopeds, kick scooters, and E-bikes to private and business customers. The company aims to reduce the number of privately owned vehicles in cities by offering multiple modes of transportation from one place to another.?

Autofleet enables fleet operators and logistics providers to become service providers. The AutoFleet platform optimizes existing operations and launches new on-demand passenger and logistics services.

Aer Compliance specializes in cybersecurity for the automotive industry. A modern vehicle contains dozens, if not hundreds, of computers controlling many aspects of the vehicle, including the steering system and infotainment systems. As a result of the increased number of connectivity options available in cars, such as cellular antennas and Bluetooth transmitters, these computers are susceptible to a wide variety of attacks.?

Fullpath ,nenables dealers to turn their first-party data into customers. Their Customer Data Experience Platform (CDXP) unifies siloed data sources and leverages the data to create a personal customer experience.?