Segment
Vehicle autonomy: sensors, compute and the map question
An automated driving system perceives its surroundings, decides what to do, and acts. This segment covers the hardware behind the first two — the sensor set and the computer — and the strategic disagreement about how much prior knowledge of the road a vehicle should carry.
In one sentence
Vehicle autonomy is the set of sensing, computing and mapping technologies that allow a vehicle to perceive its environment and control itself with reduced or no human input.
Two philosophies have persisted. One uses cameras as the primary sensor and treats driving as a perception problem to be solved with learned models, arguing that a system able to drive anywhere cannot depend on prior maps of everywhere. The other combines cameras with radar and lidar and operates within mapped areas, arguing that redundancy and prior knowledge are how a safety case is actually made.
The difference is not only technical. A camera-first system is cheap enough to ship on every vehicle and improves with fleet data; a sensor-rich mapped system costs more per vehicle and is deployed as a service in defined areas. They are different products with different economics, and both are in commercial operation.
How this breaks down
Split by what the system senses with, what it computes on, and what it knows in advance.
- Automotive image sensorsThe silicon behind every camera-based system, and the dynamic range problem that defines it.Definition page
- Perception sensorsWhat each sensor measures well, what it cannot measure, and why fusion is the point.Breaks down into: Camera modules · Automotive radar · Automotive lidar3 pages below
- Autonomy computeRunning neural networks in real time, in a vehicle's thermal and power budget, with a safety case.Definition page
- Maps and localisationHigh-definition maps, how a vehicle places itself on one, and the argument about whether it should.Definition pageChokepoint
What this depends on
Technology dependencies are solved by engineering; supply dependencies are solved by building something, which takes years.
- Supply chain
Automotive-qualified semiconductors
Every sensor and processor must meet automotive reliability and safety requirements over a long service life.
Foundry and capacity - Standard
Functional safety standards
Safety requirements shape the architecture directly, particularly the need for redundancy and fault detection.
Companies across Autonomy
Every company named on a step below this page, ordered by how many of those steps it appears at. Compiled from the pages themselves rather than written separately, so the two cannot disagree. Not a ranking and not a recommendation.
- ContinentalFrankfurt4 steps
Perception sensors · Camera modules · Automotive radar · Automotive lidar
- ValeoParis3 steps
- Robert BoschPrivate2 steps
27 more companies appear at a single step each; they are named on the pages for those steps.
How these pages are written
Each page explains one technology in plain language, states what it depends on, and names companies by what they supply at that step. Company roles are described qualitatively and deliberately carry no market shares, revenue figures or rankings — those change faster than an explainer can, and a stale number is worse than none. Ticker links point at company pages on this site and are provided for reference only.
Nothing here is investment advice, a recommendation, or a forecast. A company named on a page about a technology is not thereby a good investment, and the chokepoints described are structural facts about supply chains rather than predictions about prices. Technology moves; where a page describes something as unresolved or in development, that was true when it was written.
Plutux no es un asesor de inversiones. Los datos de mercado y el análisis generado por IA son solo informativos y educativos, no asesoramiento de inversión. Aviso legal