Two companies from Beijing E-Town have been selected for the latest global autonomous driving company list released by Guidehouse, a public and business consulting company. 

In the list of 16 autonomous driving companies worldwide, Baidu Apollo is listed as a "leader", the only Chinese company in that category, while Pony.ai is listed as a "challenger".

Guidehouse, a world-leading public and business consulting company, ranks the competitiveness of global autonomous driving companies every year, and this list has become a relatively authoritative ranking in the autonomous driving industry. 

Guidehouse evaluates each company according to 10 criteria, including vision, market strategy, partnership, production strategy, technology, and product capabilities, and divides companies into "leaders", "competitors", "challengers", and "followers" based on their scores.

According to the list, Baidu Apollo ranks third in the "leaders" category with a score of 8.2, and this is the third consecutive year that the company has been listed as a "leader". 

In the parameters evaluated by Guidehouse, the highest score for Baidu Apollo was in the item of vision, as Guidehouse believes that Baidu's existing business can provide strong resource support for its autonomous driving technology research and business expansion, giving it an inherent advantage in autonomous driving. 

Meanwhile, in the development process, Baidu Apollo in addition to mass-producing cars has comprehensively laid out algorithm models and created AI infrastructure, high-precision maps, V2X, and other technological fields, which has given it a technical advantage in the field of autonomous driving.

A simulator for autonomous driving in Baidu Apollo [Photo/beijingetown.com.cn]

To date, Baidu's autonomous driving travel service platform "Luobo Kuaipao" has accumulated more than two million orders, and the company has launched autonomous driving travel services in more than 10 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, becoming the first enterprise to carry out fully unmanned autonomous driving commercial operation and testing in Wuhan, Chongqing, and Beijing. 

In 2023, Baidu Apollo will focus on building the world's largest unmanned driving operation service area.

The interior of an autonomous driving vehicle [Photo/beijingetown.com.cn]

Pony.ai is listed as a "challenger" and has broken through the unmanned testing operation, with significant room for improvement in scale and technology. 

Since its establishment, Pony.ai has formed three major technology front-end business sectors: autonomous driving travel services (Robotaxi), autonomous driving freight services (Robotruck), and a passenger vehicle intelligent driving business (POV), and has obtained an "unmanned vehicle external remote stage" road test license in the Beijing High-Level Automated Driving Demonstration Area.

A Pony.ai self-driving car on the road [Photo/beijingetown.com.cn]

Currently, Pony.ai is conducting full vehicle unmanned autonomous driving tests in both Beijing and Guangzhou, laying the foundation for future full vehicle unmanned demonstration applications and commercial operations.