Tesla, Mobileye will end Autopilot technology collaboration

Mobileye announced the end of the partnership on its second-quarter earnings call on Tuesday morning, according to MarketWatch. Mobileye's shares were down more than nine percent on Tuesday afternoon.

Mobileye will continue to provide technical support of its EyeQ3 processor for the California-based electric-vehicle maker, but won't develop more Autopilot-related products. There was no word on which company made the decision or when the current contract would end. Mobileye said the end of the partnership wouldn't have a material impact on company earnings.

Instead, Mobileye will direct more of its resources towards its partnership with BMW and Intel on further developing autonomous-driving features. Mobileye announced that partnership earlier this month, as you can see in the press release below.

Mobileye made its announcement nine days after Tesla chief Elon Musk tweeted his thanks to both Mobileye and Bosch for their contributions to Autopilot's development. Musk wrote at the time that Tesla was on the verge of achieving "moderate and maybe big advances" to Autopilot, and reiterated his faith in the strategy of improving Autopilot through camera and radar advancements instead of lidar, a detection system that uses light from a laser.

Tesla is facing more questions about Autopilot and specifically its safety ramifications after a number of Tesla drivers crashed while possibly engaging autopilot. That questioning ratcheted up a notch after a Florida driver was killed in a Tesla Model S in early May when his sedan hit a truck while the car was on Autopilot. US regulators this week said that the preliminary findings were that the driver was speeding, doing 74 miles per hour in a 65-mph zone.