Latest ranking of autonomous driving companies: Waymo, GM, Ford lead, Apple, Tesla at the bottom

On March 14, Navigant Research, a US market research organization, released the latest version of the autonomous driving competitiveness rankings. Unsurprisingly, Waymo, GM Cruise, and Ford took the top three spots with scores of 86.7, 86.6, and 84.2, respectively, demonstrating their leadership.

The research report ranks 20 companies developing autonomous driving systems based on 10 evaluation indicators, including corporate vision, market development strategy, partners, production strategy, technology, marketing & distribution, production capacity, product quality & reliability, product portfolio, and project development sustainability.

The scores among the three giants are very close, and Navigant Research commented on the reasons for the ranking:

• Waymo, a subsidiary of Google, plans to assemble self-driving cars in southeastern Michigan and use Chrysler minivans for commercial operations.

• General Motors' Cruise has pledged to offer commercial self-driving car services this year.

• Ford may seem low-key, but it has strong technical and business plans.

The next three companies are Detroit-based suppliers Aptiv (75.5), Intel-Mobileye (74.2) and Volkswagen (73.8), which are almost 10 points behind the top three on average, showing the huge gap. This echelon is defined as "competitors" by Navigant Research, and in addition to the above three, it also includes BMW-Intel-FCA, Daimler-Bosch, Toyota, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, Hyundai Group, Volvo-Veoneer-Ericsson-Zenuity, Uber, Baidu, NAVYA, May Mobility, Zoox, etc.

The report does not predict who will lead in self-driving cars, or who will make the most profit.

"This study looks at the company's progress in commercializing its technology," said Sam Abuelsamid, senior analyst at Navigant. "GM and Waymo are the furthest along in terms of technology development and business model innovation. Ford is not planning to be the first to enter the market, and their goal is to focus on building a good autonomous driving service rather than retrofitting existing vehicles."

As Sherif Marakby, CEO of Ford Autonomous Vehicles, said: "We hope to launch a commercial-scale autonomous vehicle service in 2021."

FCA is in a strong position with BMW and Intel, but ranks behind Volkswagen, Mercedes, Toyota, Renault-Nissan and China's Baidu, according to Navigant's analysis.

There are also some high-profile companies included in Navigant's list, such as Tesla and Apple. Because Tesla's autopilot system has caused serious traffic accidents, it ranks last, only ahead of Apple. Although Tesla CEO Musk has repeatedly promised that it will soon have full autopilot capabilities, Navigant does not seem to appreciate it.

Navigant was also skeptical about Apple's car-making, but expressed approval of the company's development of energy-saving processors suitable for cars, so it was also included in the list.

On April 18 this year, during the Shanghai Auto Show, Leifeng.com's New Intelligent Driving and Shanghai International Exhibition Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shanghai International Exhibition) jointly held the "AI+Smart Car Innovation Summit" - this is also the continuation of the above goals by New Intelligent Driving as a professional team reporting on the field of smart cars.

What are the highlights of this "AI+Smart Car Innovation Summit"?

As always, C-Level speakers will cover hot topics such as the development trend of the smart car industry, technology research and development, infrastructure, industry exploration, China opportunities, and future prospects. We hope to tell the past and present of "AI+smart cars" from many aspects, as well as the desire and concerns for the commercialization of smart car technology.

2019 AI+Smart Car Innovation Summit

Official website: https://gair.leiphone.com/gair/iv2019

Organizer: Leifeng.com New Intelligent Driving & Shanghai International Exhibition Center

Size: 500 people

Date: 2019.4.18

Location: Shanghai National Exhibition and Convention Center

Leiphone.com Note: If you want to get a limited-time free ticket to the summit, scan the QR code in the picture above to register. After passing the review, you can get the ticket to Leiphone.com's New Intelligent Driving 2019 AI+Smart Car Innovation Summit.