In the past months tech companies like Apple and Google mostly hit the headlines with their investments in autonomous driving technology. One might assume that the traditional car manufacturers are missing out on a chance here – but a recent study by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research shows that the OEMs aren’t sleeping.
The institute took a closer look on almost 6,000 patents related to autonomous car technologies from the past 7 years. The results prove that traditional car makers and suppliers are holding the most patents. Places 1 to 3 all go to German companies – especially Bosch is outpacing the competition with 958 patents, second placed Audi “only” counts 516 patent fillings. Parts and systems supplier Bosch has been focusing on self-driving car technologies in the past years and developed several systems that are used in prototypes such as the steering system of the driverless Google Car or ADAS systems used in Tesla models.