Autonomous A2Z (CEO Han Ji-hyung) has proven its global competitiveness by ranking 11th in the world in the 2024 Automated Driving Leaderboard published by Guidehouse Insights, a global market research firm.
Guidehouse is a global consulting firm established by spinning off the public sector of PwC, one of the world's top four accounting firms. Since 2015, it has been evaluating the strategic direction and execution capabilities of autonomous driving companies around the world and announcing the rankings every year. Autonomous A2Z entered the rankings for the first time last year at 13th place, and rose two places to 11th place this year, making it the only Korean autonomous driving company to enter the rankings for two consecutive years, solidifying its position as a leading company in the Korean autonomous driving ecosystem.
Autonomous A2Z’s rise in ranking is significant in that it was achieved while the evaluation target expanded from 16 companies last year to 20 this year. This year, Guidehouse Insight expanded the scope to include large truck and cargo autonomous driving companies, evaluating a total of 20 global autonomous driving leading companies, giving a real sense of the fierce competition in the autonomous driving industry.
As Autonomous A2Z rose in the overall rankings, it advanced from the Challengers group to the Contenders group in the group evaluation, gaining recognition for its technological prowess and commercialization potential in the global autonomous driving market. Guidehouse Insight cited ▲commercialization potential based on government policies ▲overseas expansion through global joint ventures ▲attacking into the public transportation market with RoboShuttle as Autonomous A2Z’s strengths.
Looking at the detailed items, out of the 10 evaluation criteria, corporate vision received high scores of 85 points, market entry strategy 75 points, and partners 72 points. Autonomous A2G plans to commercialize the driverless level 4 autonomous driving shuttle 'ROii' under government certification in the second half of this year, and the announcement of a specific roadmap for entering the global market is interpreted as having had a positive effect on the corporate vision item. In addition, it is expanding its autonomous driving business by establishing a joint corporation 'Autonomous2Global (A2G)' with global entry platform Kilsa Global in Singapore, and is also targeting the Middle Eastern market by establishing a joint corporation 'Abu Dhabi Autonomous Driving (A2D)' with UAE AI company Bayanat (now Space42), so we can guess the reason for the evaluation of market entry strategy. It is presumed that the fact that it produces Korean-style unmanned autonomous driving vehicles with a localization rate of 96% through collaboration with excellent domestic auto parts companies such as Samsung SDI's batteries played a role in the partner evaluation.
This year in particular, among the top 20 companies evaluated, 90% are American (15 companies) and Chinese (3 companies), and Autonomous A2Z is the only Korean company to make it on the list. The leading group included Waymo, which took first place, along with Baidu and Mobileye, which took second and third places. The competing group included 13 companies, including Autonomous A2Z, Nvidia, which took fourth place, and Motional, a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Company and Aptiv, which took 15th place. The chasing group consisted of a total of four companies, with Tesla taking last place in 20th place. Autonomous A2Z achieved this result with the smallest cumulative investment amount of KRW 52 billion (as of December 2023) among the 20 companies.
Han Ji-hyung, CEO of Autonomous A2Z, said, “This achievement was possible with the smallest investment compared to other global companies in the rankings. This was possible thanks to the government’s corporate support policies, such as the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s promotion of a Level 4 autonomous vehicle sales system, which enabled the commercialization of autonomous vehicles, and the advancement of technology through free support of the K-City test bed by the Korea Transportation Safety Authority’s Automobile Safety Research Institute (KATRI). I would like to express my gratitude to these governments.” He added, “We will continue to grow as a global autonomous driving leader that contributes to securing national competitiveness through continuous technological development and market expansion.”
Meanwhile, Autonomous A2Z is a leading domestic autonomous driving startup founded in 2018 by four autonomous driving engineers from Hyundai Motor Company (CEO Han Ji-hyung, and Vice Presidents Oh Young-chul, Yoo Byung-yong, and Heo Myeong-seon). It currently operates the largest number of autonomous vehicles in Korea, 51, and has achieved the longest autonomous driving distance of 570,000 km. It is securing competitiveness in the global market with a Korean strategy of targeting the public transportation market called Robo-shuttle rather than Robo-taxi. It is promoting business in line with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's mobility roadmap for the commercialization of Level 4 autonomous driving by 2027, and is strengthening its global position through overseas expansion into the Middle East and Singapore.
- See more related articles
You must be logged in to post a comment.