Here are all the companies racing to put driverless cars on the road by 2020

When 2020 hits, you can bet it will start the decade of driverless cars.

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11 automakers are committed to having driverless car technology ready by 2020, some even declaring their fully autonomous car will be hitting the roads at that time. (Assuming the various necessary regulations are in place, of course.)

There are so many players in the game it can be hard to keep track, so we rounded all of them up. Here's who is in the race to make driverless cars a reality just four years from now.

Volvo XC90
Volvo
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Tesla is aiming to have its driverless technology ready by 2018.

Tesla Model X
Tesla CEO Elon Musk demonstrates the falcon wing doors on the new Tesla Model X Crossover SUV during a launch event on September 29, 2015 in Fremont, California. After several production delays, Elon Musk officially launched the much anticipated Tesla Model X Crossover SUV.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Tesla CEO Elon Musk committed to the 2018 timeline in September, but it's unlikely we'll see one on the road. Musk himself said that it's unlikely regulators will be ready for driverless cars to hit the roads in 2018, so we'll have to wait to see how that plays out.

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If Tesla succeeds in building a fully autonomous car by 2020, Uber has declared it will buy 500,000.

Uber
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"Travis [Kalanick] recently told me that in 2020, if Teslas are autonomous, he'd want to buy all of them," said Steve Jurvetson, a board member and early investor in Tesla. "And I was like, 'What?' And he's like 'All 500,000 estimated for 2020 production, I want them all.' But he couldn't get a return call from Elon, so he was like, whatever."

Uber has also made a play for the self-driving car space by poaching staff from Carnegie Mellon University's robotics department. But we have yet to hear specifics about Uber's driverless car plans.

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Google has never given a formal deadline, but has suggested it's working on having the technology ready by 2020.

Chris Urmson, head of Google's self-driving car project, suggested that he and his team are working on a 2020 deadline in a March 2015 TED Talk.

Google is taking a different approach from other automakers in that it isn't looking to roll out semi-autonomous features overtime, but have a fully autonomous car ready.

What's holding Google back? Aside from the need for further technological refinement, Google has called for federal laws that will set regulations for driverless cars and allow them to hit the roads.

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Toyota is looking to have a driverless car ready to go by 2020.

The automaker is serious about having its driverless cars ready by 2020. In November, Toyota invested $1 billion in artificial intelligence and robotics to help make that goal a reality. The automaker is also mapping routes to aid its driverless car efforts.

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BMW will make semi-autonomous features standard in all their cars starting in 2020, but isn't rushing to develop a fully autonomous car.

bmw i3
BMW

BMW's all-electric i3 can already park itself and come back to pick you up when you're ready! But BMW is in no way rushing to be the first in the driverless car market.

CEO Harald Krüger said in December that the company is holding off on more advanced driverless features until they are sure they are completely safe. 

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Volvo is aiming to make its cars "deathproof" by 2020 by rolling out semi-autonomous features in its cars, eventually working up to fully driverless ones.

Volvo XC90
Volvo

Volvo recently announced it will be launching its "most advanced autonomous driving experiment" in China, where 100 volunteers will be able to test driverless Volvo XC90s on public roads. The experiment is part of its DriveMe program that will also test 100 driverless Volvos in Gothenburg, Sweden starting in 2017.

By 2020, Volvo plans to be well on its way to having a fully autonomous car.

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Nissan is committed to have a commercially viable autonomous car on the roads by 2020.

Nissan wrote on their website that it has "achieved the technological advancements necessary to begin to make this fiction a reality" by that date. At the Geneva Motor Show, Nissan highlighted how the interior of autonomous cars can change once the technology becomes a reality in its IDS Concept car.

 

Ford CEO Mark Fields expects to see a fully autonomous car by the end of the decade, but adds Ford's driverless car may not be the first.

Ford Fusion Hybrid self-driving car project
Ford

"What we have said is, we may not be the first, but when we do, it will be true to our brand, which means accessibility," Ford CEO Mark Fields recently told Business Insider. "We want to make sure it's available to everyone, and not just folks who can afford luxury cars."

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General Motors will have a fleet of self-driving cars available for employee use in late 2016.

(GM's self-driving concept car the EN-V) 

GM will test driverless prototypes on its Warren Technical Center campus by the end of this year, according to Wired. The automaker is serious about getting driverless technology to the market, which is why it bought self-driving car startup Cruise Automation in March for $1 billion. But we have yet to hear a precise deadline on when it could be ready.

GM also invested $500 million in Lyft to build driverless on-demand cars.

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Daimler, the maker of the Mercedes-Benz, plans to have its driverless trucks ready by 2020.

daimler
Daimler's autonomous truck.
Daimler

In October, A Mercedes-Benz big-rig made history by driving itself on a public road, marking the first time a big-rig drove semi-autonomously on a highway. Daimler said in 2015 that its driverless trucks are two to three years away from production, Daily Mail reported.  

Daimler has always had aggressive plans for driverless cars, boldly stating in 2013 that they wanted to be the first to have driverless production vehicles on the market.

"We want to be the first to launch autonomous functions in production vehicles. You can be sure we will accomplish that in this decade," Thomas Weber, Daimler head of development, said in 2013.

 

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The Audi A7 drove 550 miles by itself in 2015, but there's no word about when it's hitting the market.

2013 Audi A7
Audi

Although a date hasn't been set yet, Audi is not a company to sleep on. The automaker was the first company to receive an autonomous driving permit in Nevada in 2012 and California in 2014. 

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Baidu, a Beijing-based search company, is aiming to have a commercial model of its driverless car ready by 2018.

baidu car
Baidu

Baidu will test its self-driving cars in the US and currently has employees working on the project in its office in Sunnyvale, California. The company has made strides in developing the technology, in December Baidu's modified BMW 3-Series was able to drive an 18.6-mile route.

The modified BMW successfully performed tasks like u-turns, changing lanes, passing other cars, and merging on and off highways

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It's rumored that Apple is working on a driverless car, but the company has yet to confirm.

Apple Car 2
Business Insider

It's known that Apple has hired driverless car experts, and Apple also approached a company called GoMentum, which specializes in testing self-driving cars on a former military base it owns.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick also mentioned on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" in September that Apple is working on a self-driving car. "Look, Google is doing the driverless thing, Tesla is doing the driverless thing, Apple is doing the driverless thing," he said.

But the company is remaining hush on the rumored project. On another "Late Show" in September, Apple CEO Tim Cook dodged the subject entirely, only stating: "We look at a number of things along the way, and we decide to really put our energies in a few of them."

On February 28, Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, joined 31 other media groups and filed a $2.3 billion suit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses suffered due to the company's advertising practices.

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