Germans Lead Autonomous Driving Race

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Statista reports that when you stand back and look at the big picture of autonomous driving patents, the Germans are leading the way by a fairly large margin. Six of the top ten patent holders are German. Google rounds out the top ten with Tesla not in sight. Of course while the number of patents is one way to judge the market, certainly what is actually patented is important as well.

Check out the chart.

Many of these companies are already testing their tech on designated proving grounds for self-driving vehicles, but for people outside the industry it’s hard to judge who is leading the autonomy race.
 
Biggest surprise for me on that list is Continental. I mean, they're predominantly a tire company right? Would never have dreamed that they'd hold more tech than Ford or GM.
 
7th grade over 20 years ago (thanks this fing made me feel old) it was the 90s f sakes... we were already watching videos in our german language class on automated drivine. They started 20+ years ago!
 
U-238 said:
Biggest surprise for me on that list is Continental. I mean, they're predominantly a tire company right? Would never have dreamed that they'd hold more tech than Ford or GM.
Click to expand...

That and Bosch in the lead by a pretty substantial margin. I had no idea Bosch was into that at all.
 
sboucher said:
That and Bosch in the lead by a pretty substantial margin. I had no idea Bosch was into that at all.
Click to expand...
Just look under the hood of any modern car. You'll find more than one little box labelled Bosch in them. They almost have a complete monopoly on automotive electronics.I don't even know if there is a car manufacturer out there who doesn't use any bosch electronic components.
 
U-238 said:
Biggest surprise for me on that list is Continental. I mean, they're predominantly a tire company right? Would never have dreamed that they'd hold more tech than Ford or GM.
Click to expand...

Conti bought Siemens VDO about 10 years ago which bolstered their auto tech business.

M76 said:
Just look under the hood of any modern car. You'll find more than one little box labelled Bosch in them. They almost have a complete monopoly on automotive electronics.I don't even know if there is a car manufacturer out there who doesn't use any bosch electronic components.
Click to expand...

They also design some pretty awesome ASICs. My division of my employer OEM competes with them but also uses some of their ASICs.
 
Germany research institute finds german companies lead... ah they're using WIPO as the definition of worldwide patents, which is funny because WIPO doesn't do patents it's more of a cost saving for the multiple filings needed for multinational patents but they aren't granted as patents just a central filing.
 
But, but, Tesla! ;-)

Serously, Tesla must have some patents. (Musk is a smart businessman and wouldn't leave his company's research unprotected.) Why aren't they on the list at all?

Edit: Also Uber and Apple, they're both shoving tons of money into autonomous driving R&D.
 
I am SHOCKED! Bosch is an industrial equipment, tool and appliance company. Continental I just don't get. But I don't know all the huge players in the industrial world, just the ones in mine.

Ford has said they are dumping a ton into autonomous research. And we haven't seen much out of them. They have been criticized because they were delaying new models because their budget was directed to autonomouse driving

But what's more shocking is they are outranking google and Tesla isn't even on the list!
 
oROEchimaru said:
7th grade over 20 years ago (thanks this fing made me feel old) it was the 90s f sakes... we were already watching videos in our german language class on automated drivine. They started 20+ years ago!
Click to expand...

Twenty years I was in college and they had a synposium where they were showing how they could drive military vehicles on their own. But the technology was so slow they could only move 3 feet before taking 30 minutes before moving again.
 
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