Who is who in the market of drones

24 May 2019

Market drones are fighting the most well known companies and startups

On the website Connected Car published a review of the current state I of the market for drones which are fighting giants such as GM, Mercedes-Benz, Uber, Tesla, and Audi Waymo.
Waymo
Approval Bloomberg first place in the market of unmanned vehicles now captured by Waymo company, owned by the holding company Alphabet. The company was able to take the lead by presenting their Autonomous car ahead of its competitors for a whole year.
At the end of 2018 launched the service unmanned taxi Waymo One.
The company has an enormous fleet of 20 thousand cars Jaguar I-Pace and is in talks with Honda, whereby it is unmanned vehicles dashed on U.S. roads by the middle of 2018, eight million kilometers. On the computer simulation passed more than two billion.
The company showed a very strong rating of non-interference in management: three case 560 thousand km, compared to 22 interventions for 212 thousand miles from their main rival General Motors.
General Motors
Yet GM behind the leader, although not by much. Bloomberg experts believe that according to several criteria leading American automaker even bypasses Waymo.
The drone program, GM received sofinansirovanie from the Japanese Corporation SoftBank Corp., invested in the project $2.25 billion Total investment in the division of UAVs amounted to about $3,35 billion.
General Motors has its own production facilities, which in the future promises a reduction of cost of cars.
Today, however, the drones from GM slower than competing models from Waymo – their speed not exceeding 40 km/h. the Situation needs to correct the new lidars from the company Strobe, which also cheaper.
Mercedes-Benz
The first models with adaptive cruise control from Mercedes-Benz hit the market back in the nineties. Since then, "assister" driver have MB developed strongly. The company is working together with Bosch and Nvidia on the latest drones that are already fully Autonomous, because they will meet the fifth – highest level of autonomy.
The company has already been testing its drones on busy roads near the research centre in Stuttgart. Yet Mercedes-Benz has no plans to produce unmanned vehicles on the road before 2021. Moreover, initially only robotaxi as for private clients such drones yet too expensive.
Aptiv Plc
The company was previously owned by General Motors, specializing in the production of auto parts. Now there are all participants of the market of unmanned vehicles.
So, Aptiv Plc has acquired the IT-company Ottomatika and shares in companies that develop lidars: Innoviz, Quanenergy Systems and Leddertech. Moreover, the company has not stopped – it has acquired the firm NuTonomy to test drones in the United States and Singapore.
Thus Aptiv could provide a technological advantage and has demonstrated a test version of its own robotaxi in 2018 – at CES. The company's vehicle fleet includes brands Audi and BMW.
Zoox
Another Chinese startup vying for a place in the market of Autonomous cars. Despite low popularity, Zoox managed to raise $360 million the company is already testing its Autonomous cars (based on Toyota Highlander) on motorways. Plans Zoox – the release of the drone by 2020. But for this, according to experts, it is necessary to collect about $640 million.
Renault-Nissan
The Alliance is proud of its adaptive security is able to recognize that the vehicle ahead brakes sharply.
The assurances of the company, it's just another step before the creation of a fully unmanned vehicle. Today, Renault-Nissan is testing drones in the United States and Japan. So, in Yokohama, has tested unmanned car-sharing. In terms of organization of tests of similar services in the cities of France.
In addition, at the beginning of 2018, the Alliance has shown a conceptual unmanned vehicle Symbioz, accelerates to 130 km/h without human intervention in management. This proves the maturity of the company and its ability to take its own niche in the market of drones. However, she adequately assess their capabilities – the first Autonomous car is planned to release on the market only by 2022.
Audi
A bright future for the automaker in the field of Autonomous cars on today provides one of the most advanced programs on the market drones – Traffic Jam Pilot. The system can automatically drive at speeds up to 60 km/h.
In addition, the German company works in conjunction with Nvidia and startup Aurora. Audi plans to release on the road first drone in 2020.
BMW
And, here BMW to the market leaders while which is not true. The company has only four tens of unmanned vehicles and then only with the fourth level of autonomy.
However, the research Department employs about a thousand employees, and the company chose partners Intel, Continental AG and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV.
Toyota
The Japanese manufacturer is not satisfied with the high-profile PR, but his first Autonomous Parking system appeared 16 years ago. In 2018, Toyota showed Autonomous Shuttle e-Palette, created specifically for the Olympic games in 2020.
Ford
Concern Ford tще in 2017 and bought a stake in the company Argo AI working AI systems. However, this acquisition does not help too – the gap to the leaders, Ford still is at least a couple of years. But the company has enough strong partners, ready to cooperate, for example, a pizzeria, Domino's agreed to have its products transported on the drones from Ford. In addition, the company has a large production capacity.
Volvo
To create unmanned systems, the Swedish carmaker gained in the state five hundred specialists. However, while that big success yet, so the system Pilot Assist can take control of only 15 seconds and it only keeps the distance to the vehicle in front and the observance of the strip.
Uber
The company has established itself as a strong market player Autonomous cars in 2015, when lured developers Carnegie Robotics. A year later, she bought the company Otto, who designed an unmanned trucks. But there was a puncture – one of the employees of Otto, who previously worked at Google, unveiled the secret data correspondence that Uber was worth $245 million.
Further setbacks for Uber fell down, one after another. So, in 2018, the drone Uber on the basis of the Volvo XC90 and killed a pedestrian in the United States. Because of the scandal, the company was forced to quickly complete the tests of Autonomous cars.
Tesla
The credo of besplatnosti Tesla – the rejection of lidar in favor of conventional camcorders. However, behind the cameras watching AI advanced-vision system. It can recognize traffic signs, markings and other objects on the road. This solution reduces the cost of the autopilot, but still raises some concerns among the public.
Baidu
This Chinese company is developing Autonomous vehicles for five years. Two years ago she had tested the first version of its software on Chinese roads. Version 2.0 revealed "to the public" at the beginning of 2018.
Today Baidu has the right to test their drones on 33 roads of Beijing. The company plans to release a car from the fourth level of besplatnosti by 2021.
Summary
Approval of the Goldman Sachs Group, profit from services unmanned taxi for 12 years, will grow from $5 billion to $285 billion So that the leading vehicle manufacturers it makes sense to fight for their piece of the pie, what we need to get ahead of the competition..