With more self-driving cars hitting the road every day, we’re taking a look at the eight best driverless car manufacturers out there. Here are the eight best driverless car companies in 2021: The main disadvantage working against Waymo is that it’s essentially a tech startup with massive artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning expertise, but it isn’t part of, or even backed by, an automotive manufacturer. It has overcome that disadvantage by partnering and working very closely with manufacturers like Chrysler and Jaguar. Waymo self-driving cars have notched more miles, and had fewer accidents, than any other driverless car initiative, and the company even operates a ride-sharing service in Arizona. Cruise Automation started out making self-driving conversion kits for Audi vehicles, but the GM subsidiary quickly shifted focus to adapting their technology to control vehicles like the Chevy Bolt. In addition to its efforts to bring true driverless cars to the market, GM also offers a self-driving system called Super Cruise. This system only works on highways, and it relies on extensive mapping work done by GM. Super Cruise is capable of operating a vehicle autonomously on any supported highway, but it returns full control to the driver if the vehicle enters an area that GM hasn’t mapped. Intelligent Drive, which is available in some Mercedes vehicles, offers a close approximation of a self-driving experience. It’s more of an advanced form of adaptive cruise control with the ability to recognize and avoid pedestrians and obstructions in the road, but it still requires constant supervision from a human driver. Daimler has stated that its fully self-driving cars, which meet the stringent requirements for a level 5 autonomous vehicle, will be limited to use in ride-share services. Since Ford’s self-driving program is less mature than the programs fielded by most competitors, they have fewer real-world testing miles than either Waymo or GM Cruise. Through partnerships with Postmates, Walmart, and other companies, Ford has shown how their Argo AI-powered self-driving vehicles can effectively replace a human delivery driver. The main problem with Aptiv is that it has very little experience with the US market. While it has operated a self-driving ride-hailing service, similar to the network run by Waymo, that network is in Singapore. Aptiv’s subsidiary NuTonomy has performed self-driving tests at city speeds in Boston, MA, but it has a long way to go before it catches up with competitors like Waymo or even Uber. The idea is that when enough data is available, and Tesla has managed to develop their self-driving AI sufficiently, they will be able to push a software update to enable driverless functionality. Tesla Autopilot is a system that’s a lot like GM’s Super Cruise, in that it enables a self-driving car experience under very specific circumstances. The system is designed to only operate at highway speeds, and it requires constant supervision by a human driver. Tesla’s self-driving initiative suffered a major setback when an Autopilot user suffered a fatal accident with the system engaged. While it’s possible that Tesla’s self-driving AI could eventually work without the type of expensive LIDAR systems used by the competition, whether or not that will actually happen remains to be seen. In addition to tests in a number of areas around the United States, Uber operated a pilot driverless ride-sharing program in Phoenix, AZ. Vehicles in the program were fully automated, with human safety drivers along for the ride in case of emergencies. Uber suffered a major setback when one of its self-driving cars was involved in a fatal accident with a pedestrian. There was a safety driver present, but they were allegedly watching a TV show at the time of the accident. When Uber’s self-driving vehicle tests started back up, they were limited to much slower speeds and also operated in a far more limited fashion, causing the ride-sharing giant to fall even further behind the competition. The catch is that Traffic Jam Pilot, which is available as an option on the Audi A8, isn’t available in the United States. The different highway conditions in the United States compared to Europe, and the massive costs to perform the type of manual road mapping that GM underwent for Super Cruise, mean that you won’t be able to experience Traffic Jam Pilot outside Europe. Volkswagen’s other self-driving initiatives are further behind, but their willingness to explore partnerships with agile tech companies like Argo AI is a good sign.
