Guidehouse Insights Leaderboard Report - Automated Driving Systems: Assessment of Strategy and Execution for 20 Companies Developing Automated Driving Systems

After nearly 2 decades of work on automated driving systems (ADS) by hundreds of startups, legacy automakers and suppliers, and academic researchers, some early commercialization finally started to take hold in 2023 and 2024. The number of companies involved in developing self-driving vehicles has gradually declined from well over 100 known companies globally in the late 2010s to somewhere between 30 and 40 in 2024, and the challenge of actually creating a sustainable business model continues to be elusive. Many startups have faded away as they ran out of money and investors turned their gaze to the latest bright shiny object of AI. Meanwhile, many legacy automotive manufacturers and suppliers such as Ford (which funded the now defunct Argo AI) and Bosch have shifted their development resources to more pressing tasks like electrification.

Even among those companies that remain in the chase for the viable self-driving vehicle, several leaders from prior years have stumbled in the past 2 years, including Cruise, Motional, and Nuro. As this report was being prepared for publication, General Motors announced it was withdrawing funding for Cruise, ending robotaxi development and combining the Cruise team with its internal assisted and automated driving group to focus on developing ADS for consumer vehicles. Some companies have expanded their scope, targeting a broader range of vehicles and use cases from passenger cars to long-haul trucks, while others remain focused on middle-mile deliveries or public transit augmentation. Some are hoping to take advantage of the challenges faced by legacy automakers in bringing software development in-house by offering to license their software for a range of use cases, from advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) to ADS.

With this broader scope of efforts in mind, this edition of the Guidehouse Insights Leaderboard looks at 20 ADS companies, including those mentioned above. All of them are developing at least Level 4 (L4) ADS that can operate without human intervention or supervision (hands-off/eyes-off/brain-off).

Top 10 Vendors

Waymo

Baidu

Mobileye

NVIDIA

Aurora

Plus

WeRide

Zoox

Gatik

Cruise