Here's why Intel bought Mobileye

Intel has announced that it plans to acquire the autonomous car hardware firm Mobileye for a cool $15 billion. It's a weighty sum, but the purchase gives Intel cutting-edge machine-learning technology that lies at the center of the nascent autonomous car industry. The buyout of Mobileye, one of our 50 Smartest Companies of 2016, is the second largest ever made by Intel. It's also by far the largest autonomous car acquisition to date, and another sign that the self-driving vehicle sector looks set to explode in the coming years. Many car manufacturers already use Mobileye's hardware to power their autonomous systems, giving the company a position of power throughout the industry.