Ford leads autonomous driving tech, report says

The Ford Motor Company is in pole position on driverless vehicle technology, a new report from Navigant Research reveals.

It’s well ahead of Google, Tesla and Uber “‘when it comes to benefiting from the coming age of autonomous vehicles”, the report says.

Ranked behind Ford, in order, are General Motors, Renault-Nissan Alliance, Daimler, Volkswagen Group, BMW, Waymo, Volvo/Autoliv/Zenuity, Delphi, and Hyundai Motor Group.

Among “contenders” are PSA, Tesla, Toyota and ZE. “Challengers” are Honda, Uber, nuTonomy and Baidu.

The Navigant Research Leaderboard Report examines the strategy and execution of 18 leading companies developing automated driving systems.
These players are rated on 10 criteria: Vision, go-to market strategy, partners, production strategy, technology, sales, marketing, and distribution; product capability, product quality and reliability, product portfolio, and staying power.

Using Navigant Research’s proprietary leaderboard methodology, companies are profiled, rated, and ranked with the goal of providing an objective assessment of their relative strengths and weaknesses in the global market for automated driving systems.

The report says automated driving is increasingly being considered the key technology to address societal problems caused by the proliferation of automobiles around the world.

“These include traffic congestion, injuries, fatalities, and air quality. The development of automated driving has accelerated in the last decade, enabled by advancements in computational architectures and sensing technology, along with dramatic cost reductions.”

• The Autonomous Vehicle Technology World Expo is from June 20-22 at Stuttgart Messe in Germany.

It’s hailed as showcasing “everything you need to develop your intelligent vehicle”.