ST, Mobileye and EyeQ3 for ADAS and
EyeQ3-Lite SoC development


October 17, 2011 – STMicroelectronics and Mobileye announced that they have jointly developed next-generation system-on-chip processors for vision-based driving assistance in the automotive market. EyeQ3 and EyeQ3-Lite are the first products of the third-generation product family developed through the successful collaboration between ST and Mobileye that began in 2005.

The first-generation processor, EyeQ1, is currently being mass-produced by numerous automotive manufacturers and provides market-leading features that can significantly reduce accidents, such as lane-departure warning (LDW), adaptive-headlight control (AHC), traffic-sign recognition (TSR), collision avoidance through radar camera fusion, and forward collision warning (FCW).

In the case of the award-winning second-generation product[1], ST and Mobileye increased the single-chip processing performance of EyeQ2 by up to six times compared to EyeQ1, realizing a new level of active safety concept with a vision processor based on the premise that pedestrians are the weakest beings on the road.

According to a report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 4,000 deaths and 60,000 injuries occur in the United States alone due to road accidents, such as collisions between pedestrians or cyclists and vehicles[2]. Therefore, EyeQ2 not only integrates Mobileye radar-vision fusion-based capabilities into the features provided by the previous generation, but also offers pedestrian detection capabilities and options for automakers to support full automatic emergency braking, particularly in urban environments. EyeQ2 has been applied to the recently mass-produced new Volvo S60 sedan series, and several automakers are scheduled to launch additional EyeQ2-based systems in the coming months.

For EyeQ3, the two companies jointly developed an even more powerful and innovative processor architecture for next-generation advanced active-stability products. The next-generation device is once again more than six times more powerful than the previous generation, providing not only more additional features but also meeting requirements such as increased resolution for improved object differentiation. Adoption of EyeQ3 is already underway, and stress-test certification under AEC-Q100 is scheduled for 2013. Mobileye and ST have succeeded in getting EyeQ3 adopted in two products from global OEMs, and mass production is scheduled to begin in 2014.

Amnon Shashua, Professor of Computer Engineering at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and co-founder and Chairman of Mobileye, stated, “To meet the rapid growth of driving assistance systems and camera-based assistance features, a more powerful computing platform has become necessary as there is an increasing demand for low-cost functions ranging from alerts to speed reduction and full braking.” He added, “As accident-free autonomous driving technology advances, EyeQ3 will become the key engine suitable for this market.”

Marco Monti, Group Vice President and General Manager of STMicroelectronics’ Automotive Business Unit, said, “The sensing capabilities of EyeQ3 support warnings and collision mitigation even in challenging environmental conditions, helping to prevent accidents on the road for consumers. By combining ST’s expertise in vehicle design and manufacturing with Mobileye’s strengths in video-based driving assistance systems, we are providing optimal automotive verification solutions for innovative and cost-competitive vehicle safety applications of the future.”

EyeQ3's significantly increased processing performance can simultaneously handle the following excellent front camera and surround camera-based functions:

Lane Departure Warning and Lane Keeping Assist; Traffic-signal recognition supporting an extended range; Enhanced Headlamp Management; Vehicle detection for Forward Collision Warning; Travel Speed Monitoring and Alerts; Radar-Vision Fusion Capability; World's First Full-Speed Range Vision-Based Adaptive Driving Control System; Vision-Based Collision Mitigation via Low-Speed Braking; Pedestrian Detection: Up capable of operating in integration with all front camera applicationsPedestrian detection function via the system's first side camera; general object detection.

EyeQ3 can accommodate multiple camera inputs from surround-view systems and integrate a full range of functions to form a safety 'cocoon' for the vehicle. The EyeQ3 processor provides four multi-threaded MIPS32 cores combined with four of Mobileye's innovative next-generation VMP (Vector Microcode Processor) cores, offering an optimal balance of control and data processing in an architecture optimized for vision processing.

In addition to EyeQ3, ST and Mobileye plan to launch the EyeQ3-Lite processor on the same schedule. EyeQ3-Lite will share a subset of the EyeQ3's core architecture and support reduced feature bundles. During the production of the EyeQ3 processor family, Mobileye and ST will ensure that automotive manufacturers can provide scalable hardware solutions with perfect code compatibility, thereby reducing overall verification costs and enabling them to offer various feature bundles to end customers at the best possible prices.