January 14, 2026 - Waymo Leads Telemetry Automated Driving Scorecard

This is the Telemetry Transportation Daily for January 14, 2026, and I'm Sam Abuelsamid, Vice President of Market Research for Telemetry.  

Telemetry has published its first automated driving systems (or ADS) scorecard report. This report evaluates and ranks the leading companies developing Level 4 ADS for robotaxis, roboshuttles, and middle-mile and long-haul deliveries based on criteria such as vision, go-to-market strategy, production strategy, technology, safety strategy, commercial readiness, product lineup, and financial stability. 

I've been tracking the development of ADS since the days of the DARPA Grand Challenge 20 years ago, and I've ridden in automated vehicles from many of these companies, as well as others that are long defunct. I had my first automated ride in the Chevy Tahoe from the Carnegie Mellon team that won the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge during the 2008 CES, and many of the members of the teams that competed back then are leaders of the companies on this list. The goal of the ranking is to determine which companies are best positioned to successfully commercialize this technology at this point in time. As the technology and businesses evolve, the rankings fluctuate, and many of the companies that have been included in past rankings I've done are either out of business or no longer actively involved in L4 development. Some of these include Argo AI, Cruise, and Bosch. While Bosch and Aumovio, which was formerly Continental Automotive Systems, are still very much in business, they are now partnering with companies such as Aurora, Momenta, and Kodiak on the industrialization of ADS technologies rather than developing their own systems. 

For this year's list, I've mixed the companies working on different applications and the top three, Waymo, Nvidia, and Aurora, each of which is following a distinct path. Nvidia is unique in being both an ADS stack developer and a supplier to most of the other companies on this list. Also in the top five are China's Baidu and Mobileye, which have long been leaders in developing advanced driver-assist systems. The full report with company profiles and detailed scoring is available to purchase at telemetryagency.com.

Thanks for listening.