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Bloomberg
In the race to build safe and affordable driverless vehicles, being first to deliver isn’t fetching a premium from investors.
French startup Navya SAS would know: the first standalone self-driving company to be publicly traded has sold 15 of its autonomous vehicles that need no steering wheel, mirrors or pedals, and plans to start deliveries next year.
It thinks it can beat much bigger rivals like Waymo, General Motors and Uber to the market by at least a few months with its commercial cars, and bigger shuttles that are already on the road, in places including university campuses.
Still, in its July initial public offering, Navya fetched $45 million.
Billions are pouring into autonomous technologies as carmakers and technology giants battle to be the first to bring driverless cars to the masses.