With the availability of truck-only lanes or highways in several developed regions across the globe such as the US and Europe, there has been a favorable environment for the development of the self-driving cars. At present, there is a growing trend of autonomous vehicles led by world’s top self-driving car companies, and the industry is witnessing rapid advancements in terms of technologies, thus attracting larger investments from top players such as General Motors, BMW, Waymo, and Ford. Numerous technology facilities such as Dutch Integrated Test site for Cooperative Mobility (DITCM) and the ITS corridor are trending in the autonomous vehicles market. The increasing acceptance of semi-autonomous technologies, such as Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), forward collision avoidance, and automatic parking, is expected to pave the way for the adoption of driverless automobiles in the coming years. Moreover, advances in artificial intelligence technology have allowed dozens of smaller, technically specialized startups to attract investment and compete for a piece of the profitable market. The global autonomous cars market is expected to reach over 6 million units by the end of the year 2022, maintaining a brisk CAGR of more than 40% from 2018 to 2022.
For more information about the global autonomous vehicles market size, top self-driving car companies, and autonomous vehicles market trends for future, please check this following report:
Top 10 Self-driving Car Companies in the World 2018
Waymo
Waymo, one of the world’s leading self-driving car companies, with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to move around. The company is determined to improve transportation for people across the world, building on software and sensor technology developed in Google’s labs since 2009.
In 2015, they achieved the world’s first fully self-driving car trip on public roads, in a car without a steering wheel. Waymo has aligned with Jaguar to create the world’s first finest electric self-driving vehicle: The Jaguar I-PACE. The company will start testing these vehicles this year and will add up to 20,000 I-PACEs to Waymo’s fleet in the coming years.
GM
General Motors Company manufactures and sells sedans, crossovers, sport utility vehicles, coupes, sports, pick-up trucks and hybrid vehicles, hatchbacks, and vans. The company provides used vehicles and offers its products through dealers and distributors. General Motors Company was formerly known as NGMCO, Inc. and changed its name to General Motors Company in 2009. The company was incorporated and based in Detroit, Michigan.
GM’s self-driving vehicle unit, GM Cruise, is aggressively competing with Waymo, a subsidiary of Google, to be first to bring fully autonomous cars to market. GM is testing its own ride-sharing app using its fleet of self-driving cars. With the change in transportation needs and preferences, GM is confident that autonomous vehicles (AVs) will be an important part of its business one day, making it one of the world’s top self-driving car companies.
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DAIMLER
Daimler is an automotive company that produces commercial vehicles and premium cars with a global reach. Daimler follows a reliable path towards accident-free driving and intelligent connectivity all the way to autonomous driving. In 2014, Daimler Trucks unveiled the transport system of the future, which combined with a Highway Pilot, a highly intelligent network consisting of assistance and connectivity systems which allows autonomous driving on the highway.
As per reports, Daimler will launch an autonomous ride-hailing service in California in 2019. Daimler will also test a fleet of autonomous vehicles outside of the ride-hailing service. Also, Daimler and Bosch announced a partnership to work on self-driving vehicles in 2017. Daimler provides test vehicles and facilities; while Bosch makes self-driving hardware. The collaborated self-driving car companies plan to have self-driving technology prepared for mass production by 2020.
Aptiv
Aptiv, a world’s leading technology company, provides electrical, electronic, and safety technology solutions to the automotive and commercial vehicle markets. Aptiv is looking beyond to become one of the world’s major connected car makers and top self-driving car companies, its eyes are on a world in which vehicles are like super computers – capable of gathering, analyzing, interpreting, integrating and sharing huge amounts of data to make mobility better than ever.
Aptiv has a fleet of 75 self-driving cars in Las Vegas, most of which are picking up Lyft passengers. The company is a spin-off of Delphi Automotive Plc, which last year acquired self-driving startup NuTonomy, which is also testing self-driving cars in Boston and Singapore. Aptiv and NuTonomy are working to integrate their systems.
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Zoox
Zoox, an Australian based self-driving startup, lately, raised $500 million, and is valued at $3.2 billion. Operating at the intersection of computer science, design, and electro-mechanical engineering, Zoox is a multidisciplinary team working to visualize and build an advanced mobility experience that will support the future needs. The Company is developing a fully automated, electric vehicle fleet and the supporting ecosystem required to bring the service to market at scale, making it one of the world’s fastest growing self-driving car companies.
Zoox aims to provide the next generation of Mobility-as-a-Service in urban environments. Zoox is eyeing to build and operate a fleet of self-driving taxis that would interminably roam the streets. It expects to have a vehicle on the roads by 2020.
Renault
Groupe Renault has been making cars since 1898. Today it is an international multi-brand group. To meet the major technological challenges of the future and continue its tactic of profitable growth, the Group is connecting its international growth and the complementary fit of its three brands, Renault, Dacia and Renault Samsung Motors, together with electric vehicles and the unique Alliance with Nissan.
Renault is preparing to launch a pilot public transportation program with self-driving cars in France. Renault, which is very bullish on autonomous cars, is completing final testing and hopes to have the pilot service up and running by September. The program will through December 2019.
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Volkswagen
Volkswagen Group designs, manufactures and distributes passenger and commercial vehicles, motorcycles, engines, and turbomachinery and offers related services including financing, leasing, and fleet management. The Company sells passenger cars under brand names such as Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, SEAT, Škoda, and Volkswagen marques.
VW alone plans to introduce 20 electrified cars by 2025, an aggressive push, worth $40 billion. The company is thinking of a future where we all routinely step into a fully electric autonomous car with futuristic concepts such as I.D. Vizzion.
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW), a German automobile and motorcycle manufacturing company, founded in 1916, known for its performance and luxury vehicles. As a global company, the BMW Group operates 25 production and assembly facilities in 14 countries and has a global sales network in more than 140 countries.
With several levels in vehicle automation such as Level 3 “Highly Automated Driving”, level 4 “Fully Automated Driving” and level 5 “Full Automation”, the company is competing with the international players. BMW research vehicles have been testing self-driving vehicles on public roads for several years now, with the goal of reaching the consumer market by 2021.
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Toyota
Toyota is a company that is operating its business with a focus on vehicle production and sales. As of 2014, Toyota was the largest listed company in Japan by market capitalization. Toyota’s vehicles are sold in more than 160 countries and regions. Toyota today manufactures a diverse line-up of vehicles all over the world, including commercial vehicles, sport utility vehicles, and more.
Toyota has invested $2.8 billion in a new Tokyo-based company that will build software for self-driving cars, hoping to become one of the world’s largest self-driving car companies. Toyota has a determined deadline of 2020 for testing its self-driving, electric vehicles, which is part of the company’s larger goal of commercially expanding the accessibility and capabilities of self-driving cars.
Ford
Ford Motor Company headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, was founded by Henry Ford in 1903. Ford Motor Company manufactures or distributes automobiles. The company sells to dealerships for retail sale, and for sale to fleet customers, including commercial fleet customers, daily rental car companies, and governments. Ford’s vehicle portfolio includes automobiles, buses, tractors, and trucks.
Though Ford doesn’t want to be the first company to offer self-driving cars, it wants to be the brand most identical with the word trust. The company believes in slow-and-steady policy to win the self-driving car race. “Developing self-driving vehicles is not simply about the technology — it is about earning the faith of our customers and of those cities and businesses that will ultimately use it,” says, Sherif Marakby, CEO of Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC.
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Autonomous vehicles market Trends: Premium HD Maps
The universal mapping platform is a key requirement for self-driving cars. The consortium of major self-driving car companies including BMW, Audi, and Daimler Group, HERE, has introduced their HD maps. These are developed using the data from LiDAR sensors and advanced algorithms that enable level 3 autonomy as a practical use-case. Several industry players such as Volkswagen and GM have aligned to entail the usage of Mobileye’s optical sensors. These sensors enable real-time imaging and navigation mapping. Thus, the growing development and introduction of HD maps for self-driving cars is promising high growth-rates in the market.
