How Was Autonomous Driving in 2023?

From what the article describes, autonomy is cooling down, funding is drying up, and most independent startups have downgraded their Level 4 efforts to Level 2, packaging their solutions upfront to sell to automakers for profit and a shot at going public.

The widely accepted autonomy ladder currently has five levels. Levels 1 through 3 are driver assistance; in Levels 1 and 2, a human is firmly behind the wheel, while at Level 3 the human becomes more of a co-pilot. Level 4 enables hands-off driving in non-severe conditions, and Level 5 represents the ultimate horizon—fully autonomous, unlimited by environment or geography.

Put simply, those who’ve achieved meaningful results are already listed, and those that haven’t are fading out. Well-funded players can still chase the stars, while underfunded ones are reduced to little more than auto-parts-supplier valuations—after all, they’ve scaled back to driver-assist systems.

In China, Didi appears to be the only player that has truly landed autonomous driving in real-world applications.

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