THREE MONTHS AGO, we wrote an article outlining the emerging shapes, structures, and issues of partnerships being formed in the autonomous vehicles (AVs) sector. The goals were simple: map the industry forces shaping driverless car partnerships, catalogue and categorize the most notable partnership transactions, outline the challenges confronting such partnerships, and draw parallels to other industries where partnerships have catalyzed disruptive change.
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AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES (AVs) have the potential to revolutionize personal mobility. To accelerate this future, the automotive industry has entered into an intense era of collaboration among carmakers, technology giants, software start-ups, research institutions, telecom providers, insurance companies, and others to develop and commercialize the technology, share risk, and prepare the market. Numerous partnerships have sprouted up in the past year, adding density and life to this ecosystem. General Motors invested $500 million in Lyft, expanded its R&D with Honda, Volkswagen, and Mobileye, and assembled a dedicated new team of senior AV engineers. Ford Motor teamed up with Google, AT&T, Amazon, and began promulgating its SmartDeviceLink open-source software. Toyota Motor expanded its five-year telematics partnership with Microsoft and invested $1 billion into R&D, including funds for two new AV research centers next to Stanford and MIT.
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