Even when fully autonomous driving will take some years to emerge, almost every car maker in the world is currently betting on self-driving technologies. Those companies are investing billions of dollars, making aggressive acquisitions, and managing initiatives to get the most advantages for their upcoming autonomous vehicles programs.
Car makers are evolving to some kind of technology companies to survive in the era of both the disruptive self-driving and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovations, imminently impacting many businesses and industries:
- General Motors is leveraging the expertise of Cruise Automation and enable R&D programs to offer Mobility as a Service (MaaS) using self-driving cars. For doing so, they invested on the ride-sharing Lyft startup to deploy self-driving electric cars for creating an integrated network of on-demand autonomous vehicles.
GM also expects to be the first high-volume car maker to build autonomous vehicles in a mass-production assembly plant.
- Ford is implementing the Argo AI startup technology on their self-driving cars to have ride-hailing vehicles available by 2021, needing no steering wheel, no breaks, and no gas pedal. They are aiming passengers taking no control of the car in a predefined area.
Ford is also partnering with some innovative startups and testing self-driving delivery cars with Domino’s Pizza and Postmates to understand better how customers respond to and interact with autonomous vehicles.
- Honda wants to include Waymo (an independent company of Alphabet) self-driving technology in their cars by 2020
- Toyota developed its own AI and Robotics R&D department to run their Highway Teammate program for launching products in 2020.
They are partnering with Pizza Hut to work on autonomous deliveries as well.
- Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi are partnering with Microsoft to release ten different self-driving cars on both autonomous ride-hailing and car-sharing models by 2020.
The nuTonomy startup has applied sensors to Mitsubishi electric car prototypes, directing it around urban roads by using LiDAR localization and GPS mapping.
- Volvo joined venture with Uber to have autonomous vehicles on the highway by 2021. The alliance is developing an end-to-end autonomous platform, integrating in-vehicle software and systems with connected safety data from other vehicles and infrastructure.
Volvo is also providing the vehicles for Uber’s self-driving tests while running their driverless cars "Drive Me" UK trial.
- Daimler-Mercedes Benz are partnering to develop its self-driving vehicle program: with Uber to offer MaaS as a logical place to introduce self-driving cars and with Bosh for doing large-scale commercial production between 2020 and 2025, leveraging its hardware and systems work.
Daimler is already leading the self-driving truck race with its Freightliner Inspiration Truck rolling around Nevada's highways.
- Fiat-Chrysler announced a collaboration with BMW to build a scalable, automated driving technology platform for other car makers to use.
They also teamed up with Waymo to test some self-driving minivans.
- BMW announced a high-profile collaboration with Mobileye to develop fully-automated driving into series production by 2021 as part of their autonomous driving strategy. BMW plans to have both mass-market consumer and ride-hailing cars for urban pilot programs.
- Volkswagen partnered with the disruptive Aurora Innovation startup to enable self-driving software into their cars by the end of this year; using data from sensors, cameras, and Radar to perceive the world around it and trace a safe path forward.
Hyundai is working on affordable self-driving vehicles by developing its own autonomous vehicle operating system.
- Tesla is now aiming to have a coast-to-coast autonomous drive in less than six months. They are targeting to be the first to market a fully self-driving technology safer than human drivers.
Tesla is equipping their cars with the necessary hardware for full-driving capability thought its "Autopilot" semi-autonomous driving technology.
The automotive industry expects to have on the roads some self-driving luxury cars or commercial fleets by the early 2020s, forcing car makers for no-choice: do partnerships with startups for developing in-house tech while collaborating with car-hailing companies.
IMAGE: Credit Suisse; FT research