Tesla and Mobileye Head In Opposite Directions

With eight gainers and 12 losers, the Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index (D20) fell 1.34 points to close this week at 156.72.

The D20’s 0.9-percent drop compared unfavorably to the Dow’s 0.2-percent gain and S&P 500’s 0.5-percent rise.

Mobileye (MBLY) and Telsa (TSLA) have gotten into a relatively public feud as Mobileye accuses Tesla of “pushing the envelope in terms of safety.” This just after Tesla dumped Mobileye’s camera-based system in favor of a radar-based Autopilot after the now famous fatal crash in May of a Tesla Model S, whose Autopilot was engaged but didn’t recognized a tractor-trailer truck.

The once partners headed in opposite directions in share price as well this week. Mobileye was the D20’s largest price percentage loser, dropping 9.5 percent, or $4.53, to close at 42.94.  Tesla was the leading price percentage gainer for the D20, adding 5.6 percent, or $10.93 to its value, and ending the week back over $200 a share at $205.40.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

Up-and-Comers:

 Not to be outdone by Uber’s launch of driverless cars in Pittsburgh, Lyft co-founder and president, John Zimmer, published a manifesto detailing his transportation vision for the next 10 years. It includes the rapid growth of autonomous vehicle fleets and the disappearance of private car ownership.  It also predicts the transformation of cities from being car-centric to people-centric.

Privately-held Velodyne announced its latest LiDAR sensor model, called Puck HiRes. It was partially funded by $150 million in investments from Baidu and Ford.  The announcement continues to add fuel to the radar-versus-LiDAR-versus-camera sensor debate that is currently raging in the autonomous driving development community.