Market News
Recent Developments
New product launches
- In January 2023, Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company, launched its fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Los Angeles, expanding its driverless taxi services outside of Phoenix, Arizona. This is expected to accelerate the adoption of autonomous vehicles for commercial use.
- In November 2022, Mercedes is a luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand, launched DRIVE PILOT, its Level 3 conditional automated driving system for its new S-Class in Germany. This marked the world’s first approval of Level 3 self-driving system in a production car.
- In October 2022, Volvo Cars is a multinational manufacturer of luxury vehicles, introduced Ride Pilot, its unsupervised autonomous driving feature that will enable hands-free highway driving up to 80 mph. Ride Pilot leverages LiDAR and several cameras to deliver Level 3 capabilities.
Acquisition and partnerships
- In September 2022, Amazon is a multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence acquired autonomous driving startup Zoox for $1.3 billion to advance its robotaxi ambitions. The deal provides Amazon access to Zoox’s autonomous vehicle software stack and platforms.
- In July 2022, Sony, a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation, and Honda, the world's largest manufacturer of two Wheelers, signed an agreement to form a joint venture to develop and sell electric vehicles with Level 3 and higher autonomy. This combines Honda's auto expertise with Sony's sensing and AI technologies.
- In May 2022, Qualcomm, which invents breakthrough technologies that transform how the world connects, computes, and communicates, announced a strategic collaboration with Volkswagen, a German automobile manufacturer, to integrate Snapdragon Ride ADAS and autonomous driving platforms in VW, Audi, and Porsche models. This aims to accelerate commercialization of automated driving technology.