Asiatische Startups gehören klar zu den Trendsettern beim autonomen Fahren.
Alibaba
This seems to play into the plans of Alibaba, which has its main headquarters within the city. China’s largest online retailer recently released a statement that says they’ve been conducting autonomous driving tests. The company says that they are almost ready to move to open road tests.
Baidu and Tencent
It is no surprise that China-based search giant Baidu and gaming titan Tencent are also looking into venturing into the self-driving industry. These tech giants will face challenges from smaller startups looking to capitalize on this opportunity. This has led to the giants using their significant resources to recruit or acquire these firms. They also aim to use their automobiles prototypes and artificial intelligence developments to support their projects.
Employment Opportunities
These tech giants and startups will have to hire a large number of employees to make up their autonomous driving development teams. Alibaba has an initial target of fifty engineers and a significant number of support staff. Startups will also provide employment opportunities to the Chinese population as they aim to compete with these tech giants.
Investment Opportunities
Entrepreneurs are sure to get into this market after the involved parties have perfected the autonomous cars. One could start a delivery business. It will be relatively easy as compared to now. This because the entrepreneur will not need many employees as drivers will be redundant.
One could also invest in the E-hailing business. All one would need is a functioning app and capital to acquire the autonomous cars. This seems plausible considering Tencent already has already developed an autonomous driving system for these cars.
Monetization of Data
Before autonomous cars become a norm on our roads, there will be a need for mobility data. Currently, companies like Moveco are the pioneers in relation to monetization of data. They acquire car related data from drivers and reward them. They acquire data such as mileage, vehicle condition, average driving speeds, traffic patterns, road conditions and information on the driving styles of their users.
They then share this information across the mobility sector.They pay their users for information provided in MOV tokens which is a form of digital currency. The users can redeem their MOV tokens with partners like Shell, Grab, and others.
