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Leading
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Waymo Robotaxis in Arizona
Photo: CAITLIN O'HARA / REUTERS
Who is better?
Between Tesla boss Elon Musk (49) and
John Krafcik
(59), who runs the Alphabet subsidiary Waymo, which emerged from Google's car project, something has developed that looks like an ego fight.
Tesla's approach has nothing to do with fully autonomous driving, Krafcik explained in an interview with manager magazin.
"It doesn't work that way in practice," he rejected the assumption that Tesla could use the collection of data from the operation of its assistance system called "autopilot" to develop real robotic taxis one day.
For this you need hardware such as sensors with which Waymo is way ahead.
Musk didn't want to let that go and countered, "To my surprise, Tesla has better hardware and software for artificial intelligence than Waymo".
Some experts intervened on Krafcik's side: Finally someone spoke out with authority.
With its strategy, Tesla will never reach "Level 5", i.e. fully autonomous driving, says Sam Abuelsamid from the analysis service Guidehouse Research.
That is why Tesla always comes out on top in the guidehouse rankings for autonomous driving.
Tesla ranked 18th out of 18, Uber out of competition
In fact, Tesla is in the most recent ranking, published by Guidehouse in spring 2020, in 18th place - out of 18. The company itself has deleted a previously used phrase in its annual report that "it continues to make significant progress in the development of technologies for fully autonomous driving ".
Guidehouse interprets this omission in an official document as an admission that this goal is not really in sight.
Tesla also shows no ambition in the design of its electric cars to equip them as robotaxis.
Another Silicon Valley group that has long been a pioneer in autonomous driving is not even represented in the ranking: Uber.
The driving service had expanded aggressively for years, poached top managers from Waymo and Tesla (and had a long legal battle over intellectual theft with Waymo), offered the prospect of replacing its millions of drivers with machines, and often nonchalantly unleashed test cars on the streets without themselves to take care of an OK of the authorities.
In 2018, safety deficiencies were revealed by the first fatal accident in Arizona caused by a driverless car.
And in December 2020, Uber drew a line: The division was sold to the robo-car start-up Aurora under the leadership of Waymo veteran
Chris Urmson
(44) - another Silicon Valley star that Guidehouse did not find in the ranking for value .
Instead, Tesla has to line up behind start-ups like Navya or May Mobility as well as established car manufacturers from BMW to Volvo to Toyota.
However, even these do not make it into the top ten.
These are:
10th place: Daimler / Bosch
The two Stuttgart-based companies have been working together for years in the development of self-driving vehicles.
In summer 2019 they were able to announce two breakthroughs: the start of a Robotaxi pilot project in San Jose, California and a car park in Stuttgart approved by the German authorities for the use of parking systems without a safety driver - the latter an industry-wide pioneering act.
Bosch is also developing new radar technology and plans to inaugurate a billion-dollar semiconductor factory in Dresden this year, especially for autonomous driving and other future technologies such as smart homes.
The ranking appeared before Daimler first gave up its robot partnership with BMW and then also the idea of a robot taxi service: "We do not compete in any races that we can no longer win," said a company spokesman in October, showing the new cost awareness.
After all, Daimler is now cooperating with Waymo to develop the necessary hardware for autonomous trucks - also a dream of the future for John Krafcik.
9th place: Zoox
The company, which has now been taken over by Amazon, has received the first official approval for the transport of passengers in autonomous cars in the pioneering market of California - but will only use it if the requirement to take safety drivers with you is no longer applicable.
In December 2020, Zoox presented its own toaster-look robot taxi in San Francisco.
The experience on the narrow, steep streets of the west coast metropolis is widely regarded as an advantage, even if Waymo boss Krafcik sees it differently.
8th place: Yandex
As the country's leading Internet company, Yandex is the Russian version of Google - and there are also parallels to the Google company Waymo in the development of autonomous vehicles.
According to its own information, the company has now covered more than five million miles of test drives in Russia, Israel and the USA, some in its own ridesharing service, and developed its own lidar system (laser radar), which Guidehouse says is particularly inexpensive.
7th place: Volkswagen
The German group doesn't necessarily see itself that far ahead.
At least Audi boss Markus Duesmann (51), who is responsible for autonomous driving, repeats the mantra that Tesla has to catch up with a lead.
But Volkswagen has not only allied itself with Ford and its robo-car subsidiary Argo AI, which took over Audi's own development company as the new European headquarters last year.
The possible economies of scale make the eyes of the Guidehouse analysts shine.
In China, the group is also launching the first robot taxi service on the largest - and particularly experimental - car market in the world.
6th place: Aptiv / Hyundai
Aptiv emerged from the robo-car development of the US auto supplier Delphi, and its software is used in several projects from various manufacturers around the world.
The South Korean automaker Hyundai, which most recently got involved as a partner for Apple's long-awaited and never materialized car project, founded the joint venture Motional with Aptiv in August 2020.
The aim is the mass production of cars of autonomy level 4, in which human drivers still have to intervene in exceptional situations.
In Nevada there was already approval for tests without a safety driver.
5th place: Intel / Mobileye
Chip manufacturers are already central to conventional car production, as the current supply crisis shows.
Chip giant Intel is positioning itself for autonomous driving, which requires even more and specialized semiconductors.
Another hardware component was added in 2017 with the takeover of the Israeli company Mobileye for $ 15.3 billion.
Mobileye is considered to be a leader in the development of so-called vidar systems, a combination of cameras and lidar sensors with which the robo car recognizes its surroundings.
In 2020, the approval for test drives also came on German roads.
4th place: Baidu
Baidu is to China what Yandex is to Russia and Google is to practically the rest of the world.
The number one search engine links its map material and communication services to the cars in their "Apollo" project.
In December 2020, test drives without safety drivers were approved in Beijing.
3rd place: Cruise
The start-up acquired by General Motors in 2016, which is also financed by Honda, Lyft and Softbank, was able to present its first car model without a steering wheel, pedals and rear-view mirror in January 2020: the Cruise Origin, which is said to be available for less than $ 50,000 Market could come - as soon as the market was ready for it.
Earlier plans to go into commercial operation were repeatedly delayed.
Last week Microsoft invested two billion dollars in Cruise, which now has a goodwill of 30 billion dollars.
2nd place: Ford
Volkswagen's partner in the robo-car joint venture Argo AI is considered to be the measure of all things for robo-cars in Detroit, the center of the US auto industry.
Ford has gained a lot of experience from pilot projects, for example with delivery services from Walmart or the pizza service Domino's.
However, the corona crisis came too early for such services that could help with social distancing.
The market launch of the robo-cars developed by Ford has been postponed to 2022.
1st place: Waymo
Waymo boss John Krafcik doesn't have to praise himself, the admiration comes free.
The subsidiary of the Alphabet Group, which was once founded as Google Driverless Cars, leads by a large margin not only according to the number of driverless miles (now more than 20 million), but also according to the distance traveled without errors.
The commercial operation of the Waymo One robot taxi service began at the end of 2018, and California's roads are now also free.
Nevertheless, progress is slow at Waymo too.
The latest capital round in March 2020 was the largest ever, but Waymo estimated it to be valued at $ 30 billion.
The previous hype of up to $ 200 billion is now a thing of the past.
The predictions that the business will be very profitable can only be understood in the long term.
ak
