In addition to Google, they are also developing driverless technology

At Google's I/O Global Developer Conference, which just concluded, many attendees and developers got up close and personal with the lovely Google self-driving car. In today's self-driving field, Google can be said to be the most representative and most watched manufacturer. Google is not only testing self-driving cars across the United States, but is also actively applying for policy and legal support for self-driving, which has allowed many consumers to see the potential of self-driving cars in the future.

In fact, in addition to Google, many technology companies and traditional car companies have also invested in the field of driverless cars. These projects are either joint efforts between technology companies and car manufacturers, or independent research and development like Google. Traditional car manufacturers have also seen the prospects of this field and invested a lot of manpower and material resources.

When you talk to your friends about driverless cars, you can tell them that in addition to Google, the following companies are also developing driverless technology.

Uber

In fact, Uber has always been involved in the field of driverless cars. Two years ago, there was even news that Google and Uber were poaching each other's employees. However, it seems that no one has seen how far Uber's driverless cars have progressed.

Recently, Uber finally officially released photos of its driverless test car. The car is currently being tested on the streets of Pittsburgh and still appears in the form of an early test car.

The test car uses a hybrid Ford Fusion, which collects and analyzes real-time data through radar, laser scanners and high-resolution cameras to test the autonomous driving function. Although it is an autonomous driving test, there is still a driver in the car to prevent unexpected situations.

During the test, Uber's driverless car was tested for acceleration, braking, steering and some basic operations. When the autopilot mode was turned on, if it encountered some obstacles or paths that could not be passed, the car would warn with a loud beep. At the same time, the driver in the car can take over the control of the car at any time. Through sensors, the test car can drive freely on roads full of pedestrians, cars and bicycles.

GM & Lyft

Another well-known car rental service company, Lyft, has teamed up with traditional car manufacturers, and the one that Lyft has teamed up with is Chevrolet, a subsidiary of General Motors. The two companies plan to start testing driverless taxis sometime in 2017. General Motors plans to use the Chevrolet Bolt as a test model and use it to pick up passengers on the Lyft platform to test driverless technology.

Both GM and Lyft have seen the huge market potential of driverless taxis. Lyft has to face competition from Uber, while GM needs to compete with rivals such as Ford and Google. Driverless cars will play an important role in public transportation in the future.

Benz

Mercedes-Benz has set its sights on trucks for driverless driving, and began testing a fleet of self-driving trucks from Stuttgart, Germany, to Rotterdam, the Netherlands, earlier this year. The three trucks tested were built on the Actros model and were all equipped with Mercedes' Highway Pilot Connect system, which used V2V technology to automatically arrange the three trucks into a driving queue. The front truck continuously collected data and then transmitted the data to the two trucks behind it via Wi-Fi, so the three trucks could accelerate and brake accurately at the same time without any manual data input.

The distance between the three trucks is 15 meters, which can reduce resistance and reduce fuel consumption by 15%, while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 10%. This efficient truck transport platoon is not only good for the environment, but also saves a lot of costs for transportation companies.

Mercedes-Benz said that this connection makes road driving safer. It only takes 0.1 seconds for the leading truck to send data to the truck behind it, while the human driver's reaction time to an emergency is 1.4 seconds. In addition, trucks occupy more road resources than ordinary cars, so this technology can significantly reduce the occurrence of rear-end collisions on highways and is less likely to cause traffic jams.

BMW

BMW's driverless car plan started relatively late. At the shareholders' meeting earlier this year, BMW CEO Harald Krueger revealed some plans for the development of driverless cars based on the i8. It is reported that this driverless concept car named i Next will be officially unveiled in 2021, which is basically similar to the driverless cars planned by most other automakers for 2020.

"In 2018 we will launch a BMW i8 sports car, which is the prototype of the BMW i Next driverless car in 2021. Next, we will continue to develop research in many aspects such as autonomous driving, digital connectivity, intelligent lightweight body design, new interior and next-generation electric vehicle technology," Krueger said at the shareholders' meeting.

Audi

Audi has publicly stated more than once that it is developing driverless technology, and Audi believes that driverless cars are the inevitable result of the development of the automotive industry and are a very logical product. However, Audi said that driverless cars are not a must-have technology and consumers can choose freely. Audi even said that the focus of driverless cars should be placed on people rather than machines and computers.

As early as CES 2013, Audi demonstrated an A7 with an automatic parking system. As long as you open the application on your smartphone and press a button, the A7 will start driving automatically. During the demonstration, the speed of the A7 did not exceed 10 miles. Two years later, Audi's driverless A7 test car has been increased to 550 miles and successfully drove from San Francisco to Las Vegas.

In 2014, Audi also showcased the RS7 concept car, which demonstrated the speed of a sports car in an unmanned manner on the Hockenheimring circuit, and Audi also called the RS7 "the fastest driverless car in the world."

Volvo

Volvo, a Swedish automaker, will begin field testing with 100 cars next year in Europe, North America and China. Volvo's driverless test project, called "Drive me," will start on Stockholm's urban ring road, with 100 driverless cars collecting data to serve the driverless cars.

As a manufacturer that has always used safety as a selling point, Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson said that driverless cars will become a normal means of transportation in human life in the future, but there is still a lack of perfect laws and regulations. He hopes that relevant regulatory agencies can establish guiding regulations for driverless cars as soon as possible, especially those related to automobile insurance and accidents, including legal proceedings and compensation standards. And Volvo has taken the lead in making a statement that "it will be responsible for driverless car accidents to the end."

Ford

Ford announced at the end of last year that it would begin testing self-driving cars on public roads in California, officially joining the race for self-driving cars. Ford said it has obtained California's "Automated Vehicle Driving Permit" to test the self-driving version of the Fusion Hybrid on public roads. Ford plans to conduct this test near its R&D and Innovation Center in Palo Alto, California, which was established in early 2015 and currently has about 100 employees.

In fact, Ford has been conducting closed self-driving car environment simulation tests in Michigan and Arizona before, and opened the laboratory to the public in January this year. Ford said it will work hard to improve the driving level and user experience of the car, including testing self-driving cars at night. Ford's self-driving car cameras need to work together with radar and laser equipment to ensure driving safety at night. At the same time, because the test is conducted in Arizona, it also has to face unexpected animals (such as badgers) and other more complicated situations.

Nissan

Nissan announced its driverless car plan in 2013, and hopes to have its driverless cars on the road in 2020. For many years, Nissan's engineers around the world have been committed to the research and technology of driverless cars, and now Nissan has once again emphasized its goal.

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said in May this year that he found that many young users are very interested in driverless cars and hope that driverless, network connected and zero-emission cars will become the future development trend. He said that Nissan's driverless technology is somewhat different from Google's driverless cars. It will not completely let users give up driving, but provide a considerable degree of auxiliary functions. Nissan's autonomous driving platform will provide a 360-degree scene display around the car body, which is not completely independent driverless. The whole system is closer to improving driving safety and helping drivers understand more situations from unknown perspectives.

In addition, Nissan has reached a five-year cooperation agreement with NASA, the US space agency, to jointly develop driverless cars for road and aviation applications.

Tesla

Tesla has always been a big star in the electric car industry. As a company full of technological elements, self-driving cars will naturally not be missed by Tesla. Previously, Tesla updated the new 7.0 system on the Model S, bringing some automatic driving functions including automatic lane keeping and lane changing.

At the same time, CEO Elon Musk praised the company's autonomous driving function. Although early autonomous driving is not true driverless, it can provide twice the safety of human drivers. Elon Musk also said that Tesla will promote the development of autonomous driving technology by analyzing billions of miles of driving data, which is more than almost all competitors combined.

Toyota

As the world's largest automaker, Toyota will not sit idly by and watch the future trend of driverless cars. Last year, Toyota announced that it would invest $1 billion in the next five years to build a company in Silicon Valley that focuses on artificial intelligence and robotics, and recruited 16 software engineers from Jaybridge Robotics, a company that specializes in the research and development of driverless cars.

In recent years, Toyota has been quite active in autonomous driving and robots. It launched four auxiliary robots in 2013. Last September, Toyota showed the outside world its latest research and development results of autonomous driving car technology. The technology is currently being tested on a Lexus. Like Google, it will take until 2020 to be put on the road.

At the same time, Toyota President Akio Toyoda said that he saw great potential for the application of driverless technology in transportation for the disabled and the elderly. Therefore, Toyota has set up a research and development institution with more than 200 people in Silicon Valley, all of which are used for the research and development of driverless technology and the accumulation of big data.

Acura

Acura, Honda's high-end brand, has reached the second generation of driverless car testing. The new generation of test cars uses the Acura RLX model, and the size of the sensor has finally been reduced to a certain extent, giving it a certain "aesthetic appeal."

Acura has changed the original rotating lidar system to a more compact and robust light detector and ranging technology. At the same time, Acura has also updated the radar, camera and GPS equipment, and also improved the performance of the CPU and GPU. Acura said the new system will be equipped with intelligent algorithms to support testing in more complex scenarios.

As Acura's parent company, Honda also began testing driverless cars in the Bay Area last year. In the future, this improved driverless test car will also be used by Honda for the research and development of driverless cars.

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.