Japanese media releases global ranking of autonomous driving patent competitiveness: no Chinese companies among the top 50

Waymo has jumped to the top of the patent competitiveness rankings released by the Japanese economic news website Nikkei as of the end of July. Two years ago, it was only ranked fifth, but now it has jumped to first place, with its score tripling to 2,815 points. Toyota fell to second place with a score of 2,243, followed by General Motors, Ford Motor and Nissan Motor. German parts maker Bosch was squeezed out of the top five.

Nikkei received support for this survey and ranking activity from Patent Result, a market research company under Toyota.

As cars gradually become rolling information processors, the core of competitiveness has shifted from fuel economy and production efficiency to data processing technology. The rise of the data economy has had a great impact on Japanese automakers that have long focused on hardware. In the top ten list, the rankings of four Japanese companies, Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Denso, have all declined compared to 2016.

The scores of these companies are related to three factors of their patents filed in the United States: the size of the patent rights, the attention paid by competitors, and the popularity of the patents. For example, companies that apply for international patents score higher in the first category; companies whose patents are invalidated by many competitors score higher in the second category. In the third category, the main factor in determining the score is the number of times the company's patents are mentioned when international organizations report advanced patents.

Waymo's patents were mentioned 769 times, about 1.6 times that of Toyota and 2.3 times that of General Motors. Being mentioned by international patent review agencies is a basic condition for scoring: the more times a company's patents are mentioned, the more difficult it is for its competitors to apply for the same patents.

Waymo has 318 patents in effect, less than half of Toyota's. However, Waymo's patents are well-known and widely recognized by patent examination agencies.

Alphabet's strength in artificial intelligence also helped Waymo improve its ranking. The application of artificial intelligence technology includes using maps and positioning information to identify and judge traffic conditions, the flow of other cars and pedestrians, and automatically adjusting steering wheels and brakes. In patents related to artificial intelligence technology, Waymo received 1,385 points, nearly half of its total score. Toyota scored only 204 points in this regard.

Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, was spun off as an independent company in 2016. Waymo is a clear leader in collecting data, which helps it improve the accuracy of its artificial intelligence. Last year, the company's driverless cars drove 560,000 kilometers, about 14 times the circumference of the earth. In comparison, Nissan cars have only driven about 8,000 kilometers.

Chinese auto companies did not make the top 50 in this ranking, even though they are also working hard to develop driverless technology. Chinese companies have only recently started applying for patents, so they are less likely to be accused of invalid patents by competitors and their patents are less often mentioned in advanced technology reports than Western companies, which affects their overall scores.

Chinese ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing ranked 90th, while Baidu, China's largest Internet search company, ranked 114th. In July, Baidu disclosed a patented technology in Japan that uses artificial intelligence to detect vehicles approaching quickly from behind and alert drivers in time. Chinese companies have applied for more patents in the United States than Japanese auto companies, and are expected to get a better ranking in the future.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.