Intel CEO explains why he spent $15 billion on Mobileye

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich was interviewed at Code Conference on Thursday, where he talked about his long-term vision for automobiles. He said his prediction that “the car of the future is going to look much more like a server” was a driving factor in their recent acquisition of Mobileye, the Israeli auto startup for which Intel paid more than $15 billion. 

Krzanich said that someday “if you get a ransomware or some kind of virus on one portion of the device,” Intel will not only have backups, but they could “refresh your car on the fly.” While he acknowledged that there are some potential privacy concerns, Krzanich believes that connected cars will be “much safer.”

“In order for those cars to drive, they do have to look,” said Krzanich about self-driving cars. “There’s a lot of social good that can come out of this.”

He hoped that automotive technology will someday help with situations like Amber Alerts, where they could locate the whereabouts of missing children. “We’re really trying to understand how data will be adjusted and how can you apply artificial intelligence,” he said.

Shortly after his presentation, Intel released its findings that autonomous driving will result in a $7 trillion boon to the economy by 2050. Their reasoning is that “autonomous driving and smart city technologies will enable the new passenger economy, gradually reconfiguring entire industries and inventing new ones thanks to the time and the cognitive surplus it will unlock.”

These predictions were similar to Marc Andreessen’s, who proclaimed at Code Conference that self-driving cars would result in the creation of suburbs further away from cities, because the commutes will be more tolerable. Building these cities would create a lot of jobs, he surmised.