Driverless cars are a win for consumers, but not for these industries
Driverless cars are coming, and there’s nothing anybody can do to stop it. While
Google Inc (NASDAQ:
GOOGL, NASDAQ:
GOOG) was first to bring the futuristic concept into mainstream focus in 2010, several other companies have massive amounts of money into research and development to compete with GOOG in the driverless cars arena.
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Source: Nissan |
Alongside GOOG,
Audi (OTCMKTS:
AUDVF) and
Daimler AG’s (OTCMKTS:
DDAIF) Mercedes-Benz
appear to be the frontrunners in the industry. But traditional auto manufacturers such as
Ford Motor Company (NYSE:
F),
Toyota Motor Corp (NYSE:
TM),
Volkswagen AG (OTCMKTS:
VLKAY), and
General Motors Company (NYSE:
GM) are not far behind.
Additionally, relative newcomer and electric-car goliath
Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:
TSLA) announced that its vehicles will
begin self-driving on major highways as early as this summer. In January, Japanese auto giant
Nissan Motor Co Ltd (OTCMKTS:
NSANY) announced a
five-year partnership with NASA to further R&D of driverless cars in an attempt to prepare for the industry’s impact on commercial uses.
Technology behemoth
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:
AAPL) is the most recent powerhouse to join the race, launching
a secret research project last month.
With this many billion-dollar companies dedicating resources to develop autonomous vehicles, there’s no doubt that driverless cars are in our future. The question is — how will this advancement affect industries and publicly traded companies?
We’ll look at six industries that face a threat from driverless cars.