Today, Navigant Research released a report laying out the contenders in self-driving car tech. Ford, which invested $1 billion in Argo AI this year, ranked number one. Meanwhile, Chinese internet company Baidu took last place.
More interesting was Uber, which came in 16th, just ahead of nuTonomy. “For all of Uber’s problems, they do at least have an existing platform and a relationship with Volvo to develop a base vehicle that they would utilize with their automation,” says the paper’s author, senior research analyst Sam Abuelsamid.
He notes that nuTonomy’s tech might be better than Uber’s, but its lack of partnerships held it back. “Next time we update this, it could easily change if nuTonomy gets some good partnerships in place.”