When will the unfulfilled promises be fulfilled?

Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “InfoQ” (ID: infoqchina) , Author: Chen .

Last year, the global self-driving industry experienced a trough. Although some people think that the industry has not come out of the trough, the signs of the recent period still prove that the industry is still going up, but the speed is not so fast. Almost.

In 2019, the global autopilot industry has had a difficult time.

Peace, silence, quiet … There are countless similar adjectives that can describe the various experiences of the industry in this year. During this year, some companies have promised that fully-autonomous driving has not been fulfilled. Other companies have promised mass production of unmanned vehicles, and many companies have fallen into the bottleneck of development. In such an environment, the industry chooses to be silent, and no one will mention the marginal goal anymore, and no one will say grandiose propaganda.

At the same time, more and more practitioners said: do not believe in the realization of fully automated driving. For example, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was a loyal believer in fully self-driving cars, but at an event last year, he said: “I really want to give up L5 autonomous driving.”

Is autopilot really going down? Of course not. Unlike the “crazy” of the past, people started to really pay attention to products or services that can generate “value”.

The time comes to 2020, and there are some new trends in the autonomous driving industry. Financing is gradually increasing and cooperation is closer. More companies are beginning to study technology and develop business … After a short period of silence, autonomous driving Walked uphill again.

Recurrence of financing boom

Many self-driving “old players” have been plowing in the industry for many years. They have either led the way in technology or pioneered innovation in business. They have contributed to leading the industry towards maturity.

At the same time, there are many new forces focusing on autonomous driving around the world, not only the entrepreneurial black horses that focus on a certain business direction, but also the “wide and small” independent from the traditional auto manufacturers, which is uniquely occupied H. However, there is an old saying in China, “Heroes don’t ask where they come from.” As long as they can gain a firm foothold in the industry, regardless of their origins, they can make achievements and become a “overlord.”

This is most evident in financing. According to the incomplete statistics of Auto Business Review ABR, as of December 23, 2019, there were 57 self-driving companies that received financing throughout the year.There are 27 homes in China; the United States ranks second with 18 homes.

Among these companies, there are so few companies that are worth carrying out individually:

Argo AI (US $ 2.6 billion)

As an autonomous driving company owned by Ford, Argo AI can be said to be born with a golden spoon in it. After its establishment in 2016, it received only $ 1 billion in investment from parent company Ford in just one year. In August 2019, Argo AI received a US $ 2.6 billion investment from the Volkswagen Group, and its value also rose to more than US $ 7 billion.

Choose it as the first representative, not only because of its “family history”, but also because it represents a trend: the traditional automobile manufacturing industry has begun to build self-driving cars, not only Ford, Volkswagen, BMW, etc. Waiting for the old car manufacturers also started the road of autonomous driving exploration. The industry is also optimistic about this trend, although they may not have much powerful technology, but these companies can really burn the money.

Horizon ($ 600 million)

In February 2019, Horizon Robotics, an embedded artificial intelligence solution provider, announced that it has completed a Series B financing of approximately US $ 600 million, with a valuation of US $ 3 billion. On August 30 of the same year, Horizon announced at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference that China’s first car-level AI chip: the “Journey” journey 2.0 processor.

As a representative of domestic autonomous driving companies, Horizon ’s every move is always noticeable, not only because of the personal halo of its founder Yu Kai, but also because Horizon has been exploring in the field of chips, which is also the key to affecting the development of the autonomous driving industry. One of the factors.

Tucson, which specializes in L4 unmanned truck technology, will receive two rounds of financing in 2019, amounting to 95 million and 120 million, respectively. As the first batch of self-driving companies to conduct road testing in the United States, Tucson has already achieved the test task of logistics transmission in cooperation with UPS in the future, and the technology of unmanned trucks has been further recognized. The rise of Tucson is also an important sign: the landing of special unmanned vehicles is ushering in a better prospect.

Of course, more than a few of the above-mentioned companies have received large amounts of financing in 2019, no matter how many or less, they are the recognition of technology and solutions by investors. Similarly, the trends of these companies also represent the development of technology or services. the trend of.

Although the following three autonomous driving companies are not financed in 2019, they are also nearly two