Google and Waymo
Google started its self-driving car project in 2009. Since then, the company has made a lot of progress and is still working to improve its algorithms. Waymo, the self-driving car development company that was spun out of Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc., has been testing self-driving cars for six years now. The company has thousands of test miles under its belt and is currently testing its vehicles in Arizona.
Apple and VW
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Ford and Argo AI
Ford, the second largest US automaker, is looking to Argo AI to accelerate its self-driving car efforts. Ford has only been working on autonomous tech for about a year, and it has decided to purchase Argo AI for $1 billion in an attempt to jump-start its capabilities.
Argo AI is a Pittsburgh-based startup founded just last year by Bryan Salesky (ex-Google) and Peter Rander (ex-Uber). They have stated that their mission is “to deliver self-driving technology that can be deployed at scale in service of our ultimate goal: making it safe to take your hands off the wheel and eyes off the road.”
Ford’s plan is to use Argo AI’s technology as the foundation of their vehicle autonomy system. They want to set themselves apart from other automakers by focusing more on software than hardware.
Ford has made a five-year commitment with Argo AI, during which time they hope to launch a fleet of fully driverless cars in commercial operations. The vehicles will be based on Ford Fusion Hybrid sedans (which are already being used in testing), and production should begin sometime after 2021.
Daimler AG and Bosch
Another fascinating collaboration is the one between Daimler AG, one of the world’s biggest truck manufacturers, and Bosch, a leading supplier of automated driving technology. The partnership will deliver Level 4 automated trucks—those that can operate without human control under some circumstances—in urban areas. The first trucks are expected to be on the road in the USA by 2024.
there are lots of partnerships forming towards self driving cars.
Perhaps the most telling sign that self-driving cars are not only on their way, but poised to dominate our roads, is the number of partnerships being formed. There are countless examples of automakers teaming up with both hardware and software companies.
Just as we saw during other major technological shifts—such as Apple’s early partnership with Microsoft during the dawn of the PC era—cooperation between large players can help pave a smoother path to mass adoption.
The benefits for everyone involved are numerous—for companies, it provides a way to gain traction in an industry that may not be core to their business; for consumers, it means greater choice and a wider variety of cutting-edge features; and for the industry itself, it helps make sure that new technologies are compatible with existing ones, so that we all get a better experience overall.Self-driving cars have been a part of the American zeitgeist for decades now. From Knight Rider to Back To The Future, and all the way up to those endless Audi commercials that appear during The Olympics, the prospect of getting into a car and taking your hands off the wheel has been a tantalizing one.
And yet, here we are in 2018 and fully autonomous vehicles are still just out of reach. Not to get too technical (we’re going to get very technical) but so far, cars have struggled with three key things that keep them from being truly self-driving: Obstacle detection, pedestrian interaction, and high cost of production.
Surely it’s not an easy task to build a vehicle that can sense everything from potholes to people, react accordingly and take evasive action. Likewise, it’s almost impossible for today’s technology to be cost effective for regular users.
If you’ve paid attention to any headlines at all you know that several companies have made progress on some or all of these fronts. But they can’t do it alone. The path to self-driving will be paved with mergers, acquisitions and other groundbreaking partnerships.
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We are living in the golden age of self-driving cars. The speed at which this technology is advancing is truly breathtaking, and it is changing our entire world.
The race to be the first to deliver fully driverless cars has been rife with mergers and acquisitions, and some truly groundbreaking partnerships between companies you might not have expected, but that make perfect sense when you think about them.
And while some companies will fail, others will succeed beyond anyone’s wildest dreams—and our ability as a society to get around will never be the same again.
There was a time when we thought that self-driving cars would take over the roads within a decade or two. The reality is that this won’t happen nearly as soon as we thought—but that’s because the progress in this field is just so much faster than we ever could have imagined.
Last year, Google announced that it would work with Ford to produce fully self-driving vehicles. This partnership was a big deal: an established car manufacturer and a technology company, working together to make a dream of the future a reality. It’s a powerful example of how two very different organizations can come together to create something amazing.
In truth, the road to self-driving cars is paved with such partnerships. The industry is still new enough that no single company has been able to make self-driving cars reality by itself. Each company brings its own unique skill set and perspective; these partnerships allow them to build upon each other’s strengths to push the envelope in this new field.
Below are just some examples of the partnerships being formed around autonomous vehicles:
In February 2016, Intel and Mobileye announced their plan to develop a platform for autonomous driving by 2019. Intel Corporation, which is known primarily for its production of microprocessors, will contribute its expertise in manufacturing computer chips and processors. Mobileye, on the other hand, is an Israel-based company that specializes in vision-based sensing systems used in driver assistance systems (ADAS).
In August 2016, Delphi Automotive acquired nuTonomy Inc., a software company that develops autonomous vehicle technology.
It’s hard to believe, but driving a car was only invented 123 years ago. And since then, the ways we get around have changed dramatically—from trains, to planes and automobiles. But now we’re on the verge of an even more dramatic change: we’re on the road to self-driving cars.
And just like with all major changes in transportation, what we can expect is that it won’t happen overnight, but will be a gradual process. There are too many kinks to work out in the system for self-driving cars to be implemented immediately and universally. But there are several different companies working on getting us there, either by creating fully autonomous vehicles or by building self-driving components that can be integrated into existing vehicles.
To get a picture of this exciting future in transportation technology, we’ve lined up some of the biggest mergers and acquisitions happening right now, as well as other new partnerships that show how quickly we’re moving towards our self-driving goals.
It was once a dream to have a car that could drive itself. Now, the dream is becoming a reality. Advances in technology and artificial intelligence have helped make strides toward self-driving cars, and we are now seeing the first autonomous vehicles on the roads.
Perhaps some of the biggest drivers of this innovation are mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships between automakers, tech companies, and startups. These moves have helped create an ecosystem that pushes autonomous vehicle development forward.
Let’s take a look at some of the key players:
It’s no secret that self-driving vehicles are the wave of the future. From consumer cars and trucks to military drones, we will see self-driving technology become a part of our everyday lives in the very near future.
The technology is advancing at a rapid pace, but there are still many hurdles to overcome before manufacturers can build out fleets of autonomous cars and trucks. In order to accelerate the process, many companies have forged partnerships with one another in hopes that they can move forward faster.
While partnering is not new in the automotive industry, we are seeing much more activity than usual these days. From mergers and acquisitions to joint ventures, companies are bringing together their expertise so they can be the first to market with driverless fleets.
The Future Is Now
Autonomous vehicles have been around for decades, but they haven’t historically been focused on consumer applications. Most of the technology has been used by the military in drones or other types of remote control equipment. Now that manufacturers are looking at creating autonomous cars for consumers, we’ve seen an explosion in development from almost every major car company as well as a handful of startups that have entered into automotive for the first time.
There’s also interest from outside industries as well. Google has created an entire division within
When it comes to self-driving cars, we’ve been hearing a lot about the future lately. But the future is now! As of 2016, automakers have made more than 25 acquisitions of companies with advanced autonomous driving technology.
Since Google’s self-driving car project was announced in 2010, there have been countless innovations: Tesla has introduced Autopilot and the latest self-driving vehicles have driven more than 450,000 miles without a single crash. And that’s just what’s happening in the United States. China recently announced plans to become the world leader in driverless vehicles by 2025, and Uber just reached a milestone of 1 million autonomous miles driven on public roads.
But how does it work? And how can you know if a car is truly “self-driving”? Let’s look back at some of the big partnerships that have led us here.