In this "driverless" race, these are the five leaders

BI Intelligence lists Waymo, General Motors, Ford, Lyft and Uber as the top five giants in autonomous driving, but the report also believes that it is likely that the final winner in this field will not be determined in the next decade, and there is still a lot of time for different players to compete.

In April this year, Waymo and JingChi Technology, a Sino-US joint venture autonomous driving startup, both submitted fully autonomous driving test applications to the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), marking another major step forward in the field of autonomous driving.

Today, technology giants, ride-sharing companies, and traditional automakers are all greedily competing for a share of the self-driving car market. At the same time, they are all striving to be the first to deploy driverless cars on a large scale. But so far, no company has ever tested L5 level driverless cars on American roads.

In the five-level autonomous driving solution defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), Level 4 means that driving operations and environmental observation are still completed by the system, and the human only needs to respond in certain complex situations. Level 5 means that the car can drive automatically under any conditions, without the need for a steering wheel, accelerator, or manual operation by the human.

Although current driverless cars do not seem to have reached the L5 level, Business Insider Intelligence pointed out in a research report that most companies conducting L4 tests already have plans and will eventually strive to "go to the next level."

Through in-depth research on the five giants in the field of driverless cars - Waymo, General Motors (GM), Ford, Lyft and Uber, BI Intelligence believes that it is likely that the final winner in this field will not be determined in the next decade, and there is still a lot of time left for different players to compete.

Waymo: The numbers speak for themselves

As a pioneer in self-driving cars under Google's parent company Alphabet, Waymo has always been considered a leader in bringing self-driving cars to market.

Waymo began testing cars with autonomous driving functions as early as 2009, and its driverless cars have traveled more than 4 million miles on US roads to date - a number that other competitors can hardly match. In addition, Waymo has obtained 2,118 patents for autonomous driving technology, far more than any company in the United States.

Waymo’s self-driving cars accounted for 97% of all self-driving test miles in California in 2016. Waymo recently became the first company to test its self-driving cars without a driver.

In addition to the amazing data, BI Intelligence also found that Waymo also cooperates with Fiat Chrysler, Lyft and other companies. If it plans to add driverless cars to the "luxury package" of commercial shared travel in the future, this advantage can be fully utilized.

General Motors: It doesn’t matter if you start late, the most important thing is to have ambition

General Motors (GM) entered the driverless field relatively early. In 2016, the auto giant acquired Silicon Valley startup Cruise Automation and began experimenting with self-driving software and hardware for its cars.

Last October, GM acquired Strobe, a manufacturer of lidar sensors, which is one of the keys to driverless cars. GM said at the time that Strobe's patents could be mass-produced at a very low cost.

But what is most noteworthy is GM's ambition in terms of testing areas. This veteran automaker plans to expand the scope of autonomous driving testing to areas with more complex road conditions in the future.

GM had hoped to begin testing its self-driving cars in New York City's busiest and most complex neighborhood, Lower Manhattan, in early 2018, but it appears it still has not received the necessary permits.

In addition, GM also plans to launch commercial shared travel services in cities by 2019. If it can achieve its goal, GM will become one of the first two or three companies to achieve this goal.

Ford: Self-driving cars "transform" into food delivery boys

Like GM, Ford is also developing self-driving technology that can be directly applied to its own cars. But what is more unique is that while planning to operate a ride-hailing service, Ford is also exploring how to use driverless cars to deliver packages.

As of January 2018, Ford has conducted autonomous driving tests in Michigan, California, Arizona, Pennsylvania and other places. Earlier this year, Ford's driverless cars also launched a food delivery service in Miami.

In the future, Ford's driverless cars may use lidar produced by Princeton Lightwave, which may increase the speed of the sensing system required for L4 testing.

Uber: A fight broke out with Waymo halfway through

Uber's self-driving car project has always attracted much attention. In early 2018, Uber signed an agreement with Volvo again to order 24,000 XC90 SUVs currently used by Uber, and planned to equip these vehicles with self-driving technology in 2019 or 2020.

In an email, ride-hailing giant Uber told BI Intelligence that its self-driving cars have traveled more than one million miles in three test sites in California, Arizona and Pittsburgh, making Uber one of the most experienced players in the field after its big brother Waymo.

However, Uber's road to competing with Waymo in driverless cars has not been smooth sailing.

Last February, Waymo sued Uber, alleging that the company had stolen Waymo's driverless car trade secrets. Levandowski, Uber's former driverless engineer, was the key to the lawsuit. Levandowski was the manager of Waymo's driverless car department, and then resigned to start Otto, a self-driving truck startup. The year before last, Uber acquired Otto for $680 million, and Levandowski himself joined Uber as the director of the driverless car project.

Waymo accused Levandowski of downloading more than 14,000 patent and confidential documents before leaving the company. In September, Waymo's lawyers said they found evidence that seven of the 14,000 confidential documents were on Levandowski's personal computer.

Lyft: Open platform with both soft and hard measures

As one of Uber's biggest competitors, Lyft has created an open platform through which any company developing autonomous driving technology can receive ride orders from Lyft. So far, Lyft has attracted many big companies in the field of autonomous driving (such as Waymo and GM mentioned above), and the number of its partners is far greater than that of its competitors.

In addition, Lyft has also opened an independent department to focus on both software and hardware. This department has about 30 employees and has obtained permission from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test cars on California roads. BI Intelligence believes that it is not clear how this department will be integrated into the above-mentioned open platform, but it may become a way to attract new partners.

A promising business future

BI Intelligence said that while most companies are still working on the basic technology of self-driving cars, some have begun to look to the future and lay the foundation for commercial development in the driverless field. Currently, Waymo, Uber and Lyft have opened driverless tests to the public.

In addition, GM and Waymo have both moved the production of lidar in-house in an effort to mass-produce image sensing technology cheaply. It is worth noting that Waymo's own lidar sensor components cost only $10,000, which is 90% cheaper than other competing products on the market.

In the future, California, Michigan and Arizona will become the first states in the U.S. to have driverless taxi services. Once the five "driverless pioneers" start services in these states, the service scope will gradually extend to all parts of the United States, creating a new business model and revenue source.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.