Report: GM leading, Tesla last in autonomous car race
US executive urges Tesla fans to buy a Model S ‘while they’re still available’.
A report published in the US has found General Motors is the best-placed business in the world of autonomous vehicles, with Tesla trailing well behind conventional carmakers in last place.
The Navigant Research Leaderboard for Automated Driving Vehicles found General Motors (Holden's parent company), Google’s Waymo and Daimler (Mercedes) are the front-runners in establishing self-driving cars for the mass market.
General Motors’ rise to the top of the list follows its move to ask the US Department of Transportation to put self-driving cars on the road in 2019.
A statement published by GM in January said the Cruise AV (interior pictured above) will be “the first production-ready vehicle built from the start to operate safely on its own, with no driver, steering wheel, pedals or manual controls”.
Navigant Research says its leaderboard assesses “which participants are best equipped to be the leaders in developing complete automated driving stacks— including perception systems, processing, and control software—and services platforms”.
The leaderboard assesses companies according to a variety of criteria including vision, go-to-market strategy, partners, production capacity, product quality and reliability, product portfolio and staying power.
Those factors favour established brands such as GM and Mercedes.
While Tesla builds some of the most advanced cars on the road, its struggles with production capacity, profitability and technical partnerships push the American carmaker will down the order.
The report’s authors say that although Tesla is “perceived by many mainstream observers as a leader in automated driving”, it faces serious challenges in the future.
“While Tesla has been aggressive in promoting Autopilot, since ending its relationship with Mobileye, the company has struggled to reach the same level of functionality with its in-house developed system,” it says.
The electric car concern made headlines in the US this week when legendary automotive executive Bob Lutz told the LA Times Tesla’s days are numbered.
“When you are perennially running out of cash you are just not running a good automobile company,” Lutz reportedly said.
“I don't see anything on the horizon that's going to fix that, so those of you who are interested in collector cars may I suggest buying a Tesla Model S while they're still available.
"Twenty-five years from now, [the Model S] will be remembered as the first really good-looking, fast electric car. People will say 'Too bad they went broke'."
The Navigant Research Automated Driving Vehicles leaderboard:
1 – General Motors (Chevrolet, Holden)
2 – Waymo (Google)
3 – Daimler (Mercedes)
4 – Ford
5 – Volkswagen Group (including Audi)
6 – Aptiv (UK-based mobility specialist)
7 – BMW-Intel-FCA
8 – Renault Nissan Alliance (including Mitsubishi)
9 – Volvo-Autoliv-Ericsson-Zenuity
10 – PSA (Peugeot, Citroen, DS and Opel)
11 – Jaguar Land Rover
12 – Toyota
13 – Navya (French shuttles)
14 – Baidu – BAIC (Chinese tech firms)
15 – Hyundai Motor Group (including Kia)
16 – Honda
17 – Uber
18 – Apple
19 – Tesla
Source: Navigant Research