The revolution of the automobile industry is undoubtedly one of the hottest topics in the past few years The ongoing electrification of automobiles is not only changing the power source from gasoline to battery but reshaping the industry from mechanics focused to semiconductor focused.
Today, innovation is pivoted around adding intelligence to an automobile’s operations, developing and investing in the perception, localisation, planning, decision making and execution of autonomous vehicles As such, the autonomous driving industry has become a well funded sector. However, unlike in previous years where the market was filled with upbeat predictions and large corporate transactions the news is more downbeat with delayed IPOs and the scaling back of initiatives.
This turnaround is partly due to companies confronting the enormous challenge of executing autonomous driving, but also, the hikes in interest rates that add a meaningful cost of capital, forcing investors to seek meaningful financial results It is inevitable that some companies will fail to remain solvent, failing before achieving meaningful commercial traction While investments in the industry will likely diminish, we believe this heightened fiscal focus will benefit the long term health of the autonomous driving industry.
In this report we aim to provide a coherent picture of the current state of the autonomous driving industry from a long term perspective covering policies, technology, the major players, investments and M&A activities, while sharing RCL’s views on the future trajectory of this industry.
The autonomous driving industry still requires a significant amount of innovation at the system level from both a hardware and software perspective In our analysis of the start up landscape, we mainly focus on system level start ups with critical competence pivoted around AI, machine learning and software We did not include start ups purely positioned as sensors and ASIC vendors, which other reports might include. The data includes 170 companies start ups founded after 2000 automotive Tier 1 2 OEMs, start up OEMs, and other technology giants.