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NVIDIA milestone helps keep the D20’s 2018 streak of gains intact

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NVIDIA (NVDA) has passed a significant milestone. Since the Driverless Transportation Stock Index (D20) was re-calibrated in August of 2015, NVIDIA has grown its market value a whopping ten times.  A thousand dollars of NVIDIA stock purchased in August of 2015 at $22.73 a share, is now valued at more than ten thousand dollars with a share of its stock price now worth $230.11.  After market analysts continue to praise the stock this week, NVIDIA was up 3.3 percent or $7.35 this week making it, a D20 leading, 26.7 percent of the index.

2018 has only been positive for the D20, as thirteen price gainers out-dueled seven price losers to help the index to its third consecutive week of gains.  The D20’s 0.9 percent gain matched the Dow’s 1.0 percent value bump and the S&P 500’s 0.9 percent climb.

After announcing an agreement to supply driverless buses to Singapore in 2019, Volvo AB’s stock (STO:VOLV-B) jumped 4.5 percent to close at SEK 165.3 and be the D20 leading price percentage leader.  At the other end of the spectrum, Ford (F) dropped, a D20 leading, 9.3 percent this week to close at $12 a share on disappointing earnings guidance.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

Up-and-Comers:

 One year old Pony.ai, the brain child of James Peng and Tiancheng Lou, has raised $112 million in Series A venture round to build a fully Driverless car.  Peng, who hails from Baidu, got his introduction to driverless vehicles when Baidu, the Chinese Search giant, launched an autonomous project.  Lou got his start in driverless technology unit at Google, before that unit became Waymo.  Their goal is to build and offer a complete driverless vehicle, not just components or sub-systems.

Mapbox absorbs another mapping company to continue its effort in competing with D20 components, Google Maps (GOOG) and TomTom (TOM2), building mapping applications.  Mapbox acquired the developers behind the Mapzen Vahalla Project when that open source project ran into funding difficulties.  Since 2012, Mapbox has raised $227 million dollars in four rounds of venture funding.

Growth by NVIDIA Helps the D20 Stock Index Bounce Back

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Thanks to its phenomenal growth over that last two-plus years, the initial 5-percent stake in the Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index (D20) by NVIDIA (NVDA) has grown to more than 25 percent!

The D20 was reset as a $1,000 investment in 20 stocks in August of 2015. So when NVIDIA drops a D20-leading 8.9 percent in price, like it did last week, the D20 takes a pounding.

The D20 lost 3.5 percent of its value, dropping below 260 to 256.64.  NVIDA wasn’t the only big loser, though — BYD (BYDDY) dropped 7.5 percent to close at $17.64, and Renesas Electronics (TYO:6723) shed 6.7 percent to end the week at ¥1339 per share.

Eleven price losers contributed to the D20 loss. The D20 was outperformed by the Dow, which gained 2.9 percent, and the S&P 500, which added 1.5 percent to its value.

There was some bright news for driverless technology in general this past week. Waymo (GOOG) announced that its driverless vehicles have driven over 4 million miles autonomously on public roads.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

Up-and-Comers:

Russian software giant Yandex, which has a driverless technology project, announced that it recently test drove its driverless taxi for 300km in the snow. Weather in general, but snow in particular, presents real problems for driverless vehicles. Obscured road markings and slippery conditions can play havoc with driverless algorithms.

NVIDIA Unveils New Pegasus AI Computer, Boosting Stock and Taking D20 With It

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This week marked a new all-time high for NVIDIA (NVDA), whose stock price soared 7.3 percent to close at $194.59 a share after the company unveiled its new Pegasus AI computer, which is designed for driverless vehicles.

The license plate-sized computer is 10 times more powerful than its predecessor, the NVIDIA Drive PX 2, and is driven by four high-performance, GPU-embedded AI processors.

Thanks to the incredible performance by NVIDIA, the Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index (D20) jumped 1.7 percent to 256.36, its fifth consecutive weekly gain.

As a percentage of value, the D20 has now beaten or tied the Dow and S&P 500 for eight straight weeks. The Dow increased 0.4 percent and closed at 2871.72 this week, while the S&P 500 inched up to 2553.17, a 0.2-percent gain.

In other D20 news, after gaining 75 percent in the last five weeks, BYD Company’s (BYDDY) stock reversed itself and was the D20’s leading price-percentage loser last week. It lost 4.1 percent and closed at $20.11 as rumors subsided about China mandating all vehicles be electric-like those made by BYD-in some of its cities.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

Up-and-Comers:

Velodyne, the most established LiDAR manufacturer, has announced that they have quadrupled production capacity of their high-performance LiDAR sensors to meet growing demand. This production increase was made possible by Velodyne’s investment in a 200,000-square-foot mega-factory in San Jose, California.

In other LiDAR news, General Motor’s (GM) driverless division, Cruise, has acquired Strobe, a LiDAR sensor maker which, while trying to reduce cost and complexity, has reduced its LiDAR sensor array to one chip.

D20 Rockets to New High As BYD, 4 Other Stocks Gain More Than 10 Percent

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The Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index (D20) exploded skyward, up 14.15 points to a new all-time high of 240.33 this week, led by Chinese automaker BYD.

Eighteen price gainers blitzed two price losers to push the D20 up 6.3 percent, the third-largest positive move ever for the D20. Five D20 stocks had price increases of more than 10 percent.

With the Chinese Government considering a ban on vehicles that use gas, Chinese electric vehicles maker BYD (BYDDY) saw its stock price leap a whopping D20 20.3 percent to close at $14.43 — the largest jump for any stock in a single week in D20 history.

The other four 10-percent-plus price gainers were D20 newcomer Autoliv (ALV) at 14 percent, Japanese-based Renesas Electronics (TYO:6723) at 12.7 percent, Tesla (TLSA) at 10.6 percent, and NVIDIA (NVDA) at 10 percent.

Neither the Dow nor the S&P 500 could hold a candle to the D20’s explosive rise. The Dow gained 2.2 percent to close at 22268.34 while the S&P 500 added 1.6 percent to rise just above 2500 and end the week at 2500.23.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

Up-and-Comers:

Samsung’s first investment from its new Automotive Innovation Fund was a €75 million investment in TTTech. Among other products, TTTech designs and manufactures advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). In the past, TTTech has partnered with Audi, a division of Volkswagen (VLKPY) and Renesas Electronics Corp. (TYO:6723), both members of the D20.

Driverless vehicle start-up Zoox is searching for additional investments. Menlo Park-based Zoox raised money from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Lux Capital and others based on a $1.5-billion valuation. Rumors are that Japan’s Softbank is interested in investing. Zoox has been very secretive about product plans and strategies.

NVIDIA Loss Leads to D20 Drop

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Even though price gainers outnumbered price losers 11 to nine, a 4-percent drop by NVIDIA (NVDA) led to an overall drop for the Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index (D20) this week.

The D20 stepped back from an all-time high after three consecutive weeks of gains by losing 0.2 percent of its value, closing at 226.18. The Dow and S&P 500 followed suit by losing ground as well. The Dow lost 0.9 percent and the S&P 500 gave back 0.6 percent to close at 2461.43.

NVIDIA’s 4-percent share price drop was the primary reason the D20 lost ground this week.  Now at 23.7 percent of the D20’s total value due to its 560-percent rise over the past 18 months, NVIDIA lost $6.77 per share and closed at $163.69 this week.  Even small movements in NVIDIA’s share price seem to move the D20 value considerably.

Daimler AG (DDAIF), the parent of Mercedes-Benz, was the D20’s price percentage gain leader this week. Its share price jumped 6.1 percent as rumors swirled that it is considering a structural organization change that would separate its truck and bus unit.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

Up-and-Comers:

LiDAR maker Innoviz has secured a $65-million Series B investment, led by D20 components Delphi Automotive (DLPH) and Magna International (MGA). The money will reportedly be used to prepare for large-scale production planned for 2019.  Innoviz’s LiDAR designs use solid-state components and no moving parts, which should make their systems less costly and more reliable than current systems on the market from companies like Velodyne.

Lyft and Drive.ai have teamed up for a pilot of self-driving cars in San Francisco. Founded in 2015, Drive.ai is a Bay Area-based developer of artificial intelligence software for driverless vehicles that uses deep learning algorithms.

NVIDIA rebound lifts D20

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After a down week last week NVIDIA (NVDA) returned to its winning ways, leading the Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index to an unlikely rebound. Eight D20 price gainers overcame twelve price losers and forced the improbable bounce as the D20 added 1.3 points or 0.6 percent while both the Dow and S&P lost value.  With the markets jittery about the events in Charlottesville, the Dow dropped 183.81 points to close down 0.8 percent at 21674.51 and the S&P lost 0.6 percent and closed at 2425.55.

NVIDIA was the D20 percentage price gainer adding 3.6 percent to its stock value and closing at $161.50.  Last week’s sell-off despite good news about over achieving on quarterly earnings and sales seems to finally have reversed itself.  In other NVIDIA news, it has invested in Chinese autonomous trucking startup, TuSimple.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

Up and Comers:

Rumors are that Uber is close to naming GE’s ex-CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, to its recently vacated CEO position.  Uber has gone through a gauntlet of issues starting with sexual harassment accusations of a toxic work environment, to Waymo’s lawsuits claiming that Otto, which Uber acquired last summer, stole trade secrets, and now with a fired CEO founder, Travis Kalanick, and a Board of Directors in open dispute.  If Immelt takes the position he will have the fall-out of those issues and a competitor, Lyft, which has taken advantage of Uber’s public missteps to grow its market share from 15.2 percent last year to 22.9 percent in July, according to Second Measure.

Innoviz, Israeli start-up, has been selected by automotive supplier and D20 constituent, Delphi (DLPH), to be its LiDAR supplier. Delphi has recently declared a shift in focus emphasizing supplying the auto parts market with high tech and driverless solutions.

D20 Drops 2.3 percent as Dow and S&P also decline

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Fourteen stock price losers easily overcame six price gainers to drive the Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index (D20) to a 2.34 percent drop this week.  None of the indexes fared well as the Dow slumped 1.1 percent and the S&P 500 lost 1.4 percent to close at 2441.32.

Leading D20 price percentage gainer, Renesas Electronics Corp (TSE:6723) of Japan, jumped 5.6 percent as it announced volume shipment of its R-Car system-on-chip (SoC).

Two thirds of the D20’s 2.34 percent decrease was caused by NVIDIA’s (NVDA) 6.7 percent tumble.  NVIDIA lost $11.25 per share in this week’s trading despite announcing better than expected fiscal 2Q2018 earnings.  NVIDIA’s revenue jumped 56% year over year and earnings more than doubled, yet its stock price dropped significantly.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

Up and Comers:

Oryx, an Israeli LiDAR start-up, has raised $50 million in a Series B round.  Oryx’s approach to LiDAR differs from its established competitors, like Velodyne LiDAR, in that it has no moving parts and uses antennas instead of photo-receptors. This approach should make the devices less costly and more reliable.  It has plans to ship units for testing on vehicles in the second half of 2018.

Faraday Future announced that it signed a lease on an existing automotive plant in Hanford, CA signaling the end of its plans to build its own plant from scratch in Nevada.  It plans to move into the plant in November 2017 to be able to deliver its FF91 vehicles to customers by the end of 2018.  Faraday Future continues to seek additional funding to continue its development and production plans.

Led by NVIDIA, D20 Leaps to Record High

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In a nearly across the board sweep, nineteen price gainers and one unchanged stock drove the D20 to new heights this week.  The D20 jumped 5.2 percent, closing at a record high of 223.51.  The D20 easily outpaced the Dow, which gained 1 percent and the S&P 500 which added 1.4 percent and closed at 2459.27.

As the D20’s leading price percentage gainer this week, NVIDIA (NVDA) continues to hit new records and stun the market with its meteoric price rise.  Its partnership with Baidu continues to enchant the market causing its price to rise 12.4 percent this week and closing at $164.95 per share.  Because of its staggering share price run, gaining 625 percent since August 2015, NVIDIA is now 24% of the total value of the D20.  This week’s 12.4 percent gain accounted for the more than half of the D20’s 5.2 percent increase.

The lone non-gainer of the week was Nissan (NSANY).  It remained unchanged at $20.23 per share.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

Up and Comers:

Cortica, founded in Israel, is building AI systems based on analysis of how human and animal cortical networks process natural stimuli.   Cortica is now applying those AI methods to “teach” autonomous vehicles with unsupervised learning.

News Roundup: Congress Wants to Bar States From Preempting Federal Driverless Laws, Dutch Startup Amber Generates Big Buzz with Self-Driving Cars, and More

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Jennifer van der Kleut

Here is our roundup of headlines to come out of the driverless vehicle industry this week.

Dutch startup Amber making waves with self-driving cars

Quite a buzz is forming around Dutch mobility startup Amber. The company has positioned itself as strong competition for larger firms like Tesla Motors, Uber, Google’s Waymo and others by announcing plans to add self-driving cars to its on-demand ride service in the Netherlands by mid-2018. Amber was originally the brainchild of students at the Eindhoven University of Technology, which is known for its advanced automotive curriculum. Amber is partnering with five different software companies and research institutes, including Nvidia and Microsoft, that have already developed self-driving software. Automotive consultancy firm Roland Berger recently ranked The Netherlands at the top of its Automotive Disruption Radar. Read more from VentureBeat.

 

Spokesperson: U.S. Congress may introduce bills this week that will bar states from preempting federal driverless laws

A spokesperson for the U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Subcommittee said members expect driverless vehicle legislation to be introduced as soon as this week. The legislation could then begin debate on the House floor by next week. Rumors suggest one of the biggest provisions of the legislation would bar individual states from setting their own regulations for driverless vehicles that would preempt federal regulations, and would prevent the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from pre-approving self-driving car technologies. It is also believed the legislation will allow for up to 100,000 vehicles per year per manufacturer to be exempt from from federal motor vehicle safety rules that prevent the sale of self-driving vehicles without human controls. Several auto manufacturers that are working on driverless technology, such as Tesla, Google and General Motors, have long been lobbying Congress to preempt state regulations that they feel limit the progress of the technology, particularly in California. Read more from NewsMax.

 

International survey names Tesla, Waymo, Bosch among ‘most investible’ companies in driverless race

International law firm Gowling WLG and economic research agency Explain the Market conducted a year-long survey of investors, asking them which companies they felt the most confidence investing in when it comes to autonomous vehicle technology. Auto manufacturers Tesla Motors (26%) and BMW (22%) earned the most investors’ votes in their category. Google’s Waymo won the IT firm category by a landslide with 36% of votes. The next closest company in the IT category was Apple with 11%. Among tech brands, Bosch left many others in the dust, earning 54% of investors’ votes. Read more from Information Age.

Image: Amber self-driving car, courtesy of Amber

Renesas Helps Push D20 to Eighth Straight Gain, New All-Time High

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Though 14 of its stocks fell, a stellar week from big names like Renesas Electronics, NVIDIA, Tesla Motors, Mobileye and Volvo led the D20 Stock Index to a gain for the eighth straight week in a row.

The D20 gained 0.2 percent overall to close the week at a new record high of 215.15.

The D20 outgained the S&P 500, which lost 0.3 percent, but couldn’t quite match the Dow, which rose 0.3 percent and closed at 21271.97.

The D20 is up 22 percent since January 1, while the Dow is up only 7 percent and the S&P 500 has risen 8 percent.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

 

Up-and-Comers:

Lyft not only received $25 million in recent funding from Jaguar Land Rover as a part of a very large $600-million investment round, but it also received a fleet of Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles as part of the deal. Lyft is seemingly capitalizing on competitor Uber’s very public missteps.