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If your idea of driving is being whisked along in a computer controlled horizontal elevator, the future’s so bright you gotta wear shades! For years, Tesla has promised its customers Full Self Driving capability and now it seems to be on the cusp of actually doing so. One intrepid owner reports driving coast to coast with no human intervention and the company says its Cybercab — with no steering wheel, pedals, or side view mirrors — will start production later this year.
But Tesla is not the only player in this space. Just as the Model S lit the fuse on the EV revolution, Autopilot and Full Self Driving have spurred others to develop self-driving systems of their own. Mercedes now offers its Drive Assist Pro — powered by Nvidia — on the latest CLA model.
“At the press of a button, the vehicle can help navigate through the city streets — from the parking lot to the destination — with advanced SAE Level 2 assistance. Thanks to Mercedes-Benz’s cooperative steering approach, steering adaptions are possible at any time without deactivating the system,” Mercedes says. Not a robotaxi for sure, but still impressive. The system uses 10 cameras, 5 radars, and 12 ultrasonic sensors and is capable of completing 508 trillion computer operations per second to merge the input from all those sensors into a data stream that is capable of driving the car safely through city traffic.
ZF And Qualcomm ADAS System
In case you missed it, 508 TOPS per second is a lot of computing power, which means companies that manufacture computer chips and computer systems are deeply involved in the autonomous driving revolution. Qualcomm is one of those companies. In a press release on January 6, 2025, Qualcomm and Tier One supplier ZF announced, “a technology collaboration to provide a cutting-edge and scalable ADAS solution that combines advanced AI compute and perception capabilities.
“Powered by Qualcomm Technologies’ Snapdragon Ride™ system-on-chips (SoCs), the solution delivers a powerful and flexible platform for automated driving. ZF’s ProAI supercomputer additionally integrates Snapdragon Ride™ Pilot and Vision stack for faster time-to-market and delivers turn key systems to automotive manufacturers. This collaboration brings together state of the art automotive computing and real time perception, enabling automakers to deploy scalable ADAS solutions across a wide range of vehicle types and automation levels — from regulatory functions up to Level 3.”
The takeaway here is that the two companies now have a full featured ADAS platform that any manufacturer can purchase “off the shelf” and install in its own vehicles. This is what Tier One suppliers do. They offer automakers fully developed systems so they don’t have to create them themselves. The supplier makes money on the sales and the manufacturers save money by not having to do the R&D themselves.
Here’s a little known fact, thanks to Wikipedia: ZF was co-founded in 1911 by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin — yes, that Zeppelin — to manufacture gears for airships. Along the way, ZF has supplied a range of steering systems, transmissions, and hundreds of other automotive components to the auto industry. Today, it has jumped into the automated driving sector with both feet — illustrating how nimble a company must be to remain competitive in a world where technology is growing at an ever increasing pace.
For its part, Qualcomm says its open integration platform is “Engineered with a modular system architecture, the platform supports dynamic allocation of compute resources and facilitates interoperability across heterogeneous vehicle electronic control units (ECUs). Its sophisticated abstraction layers and standardized interfaces enable seamless deployment of advanced ADAS and infotainment functionalities, with provisions for over-the-air (OTA) software updates and multiple vehicle feature enhancements over time.”
Mobileye ADAS Announced
Credit: Mobileye
Also on January 6, Mobileye announced that a second US based manufacturer “has chosen the Mobileye EyeQ™6H to power future advanced driver assistance systems with hands-free driving on select highways across millions of vehicles worldwide. This deal reflects accelerating demand for Mobileye Surround ADAS™ systems globally, and Mobileye now estimates future delivery of more than 19 million EyeQ6H-based Surround systems, including 9 million from this new automaker announced today in addition to programs by Volkswagen Group announced in March 2025.
“The new customer will offer Surround ADAS as standard equipment across many mainstream and premium models in software-defined vehicle architectures. Compared to first-generation hands-free, eyes-on highway ADAS systems, the Mobileye Surround ADAS approach significantly lowers costs and supports ECU consolidation efforts for automakers by vertically integrating software systems and multiple driving functions on one chip and one ECU, a key feature for software-defined vehicles.”
In case you missed it, Moblieye — which had a famously messy public divorce from Tesla after Joshua Brown was killed in May, 2016, while driving a Model S on a highway in Florida — was purchased the following year by Intel, so now you know where the computer chips for the new system come from.
The company says its new platform “represents a software-defined set of safety and convenience features, intended for deployment in designated areas and conditions. By leveraging the latest advancements in AI, a suite of multiple cameras and multiple radars totaling up to 11 sensors can be processed by a single EyeQ6H, integrating computer vision, sensor fusion and REM™ crowd sourced driving data.
“A typical Mobileye Surround ADAS system uses one forward looking high resolution camera, four corner parking cameras, and multiple radars. These systems can enable hands-free, eyes-on driving in designated areas and conditions up to 81 mph or 130 kph, with automated lane change, highway traffic jam assist, and cut-in protection. The system is also designed to bolster safety with advanced blind spot detection, evasive maneuver assist, increased pedestrian detection and driver monitoring integrated into the EyeQ operation, along with optional automated parking solutions.
“A key to enabling hands-free driving comes from REM crowd sourced data, which covers nearly all highway and arterial roads in the United States and Europe, and more than 90 percent of roads in key Asian markets. To date, more than 8 million vehicles across 18 automotive brands and 50 vehicle models harvest anonymized REM data globally. The high processing power of the EQ6H is also designed to enable over-the-air updates for future features, along with robust cyber security protections.”
Sharp-eyed readers will note that both of these systems incorporate radar sensors but no lidar sensors. The systems currently used by both Waymo and Zoox do include lidar input into their software systems. The future success of ADAS systems will depend on how they perform in the real world. Tesla insists that cameras alone can do the job, but everyone else seems to think radar is an important part of the package.
Last year, BYD introduced its own ADAS system, which it modestly calls “God’s Eye,” that uses 12 cameras, 5 radars, and 12 ultrasound sensors. That definitely makes Tesla the outlier when it comes to choosing which sensors are necessary to make an ADAS that works well enough. Probably within the next 12 months, we will find out who has got their sums right when it comes to making computer systems that can operate vehicles safely with consistency.
Mobileye says it has two customers lined up for its technology. ZF is the second largest Tier One supplier to the auto industry, with over a century of innovation and manufacturing success behind it. BYD is including its God’s Eye technology in almost every car it builds — even some of its least expensive models — and it represents 20% of the global plugin vehicle market. The age of self driving is upon us and there are big profits on offer for those who solve the riddle best. Who that will be remains to be seen.
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