UPDATE 1-Automakers, not Silicon Valley, lead in driverless car patents - study

(Adds link to report on patents)
By Paul Ingrassia and Joseph White
LAS VEGAS, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Automakers, not technology
companies, are in the driver's seat in developing self-driving,
"autonomous" cars, and Japan's Toyota Motor Corp 7203.T is
best positioned to lead the way, according to a new report on
patents for the fast-evolving technology.
As automakers enter agreements with Silicon Valley companies
to develop self-driving cars, Tesla Motor Inc TSLA.O and Apple
Inc AAPL.O would make logical partners, the report says.
The report, by the Intellectual Property and Science
division of Thomson Reuters TRI.TO , is based on a detailed
analysis of patent filings by automakers and tech companies for
autonomous-car technology. (http://tmsnrt.rs/1OxPQ3P)
The findings illuminate the challenges for both established
automakers and Silicon Valley companies as they compete to
profit from moving people around in a world that is increasingly
congested and concerned about carbon emissions.
The global auto industry is in the midst of three
simultaneous, and interconnected, technology revolutions. The
first is the quest for cleaner alternatives to
internal-combustion engines. The second involves connectivity
and linking cars to information or data services. Lastly, the
autonomy revolution is the effort to develop self-driving cars
that could enable services in which electric cars connected to
the Web can be summoned to provide rides on demand.
"Automakers aren't as good as technology companies in
tooting their own horns," Tony Trippe, principal author of the
report, told Reuters in an interview. "But when you look at the
patent data, the automakers are all over this."
Toyota is, far and away, the global leader in the number of
self-driving car patents, the report found. Toyota is followed
by Germany's Robert Bosch GmbH ROBG.UL , Japan's Denso Corp
6902.T , Korea's Hyundai Motor Co 005380.KS and General
Motors Co GM.N . The tech company with the most
autonomous-driving patents, Alphabet Inc's GOOGL.O Google,
ranks 26th on the list.
The report from the Thomson Reuters unit comes as auto and
technology industry executives are gathering at the annual
Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where alliances to
advance autonomous driving and connected vehicles will be
central topics.
GM said on Monday it will invest $500 million in Lyft Inc as
it forges a Detroit-Silicon Valley partnership with the
ride-sharing service to develop an on-demand network of
self-driving cars.
Toyota, the Thomson Reuters report found, has more than
1,400 patents on autonomous-driving devices, more than twice as
many as any other company. One recent Toyota patent application,
for example, is for software that avoids a car's self-driving
system being switched off, and thus defaulting to "manual mode"
in which the driver controls the car, unless the driver intends
to turn off the system.
The raw number of patents does not necessarily equate to
leadership in developing self-driving cars, Trippe said.
Non-U.S. companies tend to be more aggressive in filing patent
applications than American companies. The quality of patents is
also important, since not all are created equal.
Another potential limitation of the report is the 18-month
lag time between patent filings and when the filings are
published for the public.
In reality, driverless-car development will require
alliances between automakers and technology companies, even
though both sides will try to gain the upper hand in
partnerships.
A Toyota spokesman said the automaker views a fully
self-driving car as a long term goal, but one that must wait for
autonomous driving systems that never make a mistake. In the
meantime, Toyota is accelerating efforts to equip cars with
automatic braking and other safety systems that can help avoid
crashes.
Most experts say fully self-driving vehicles are unlikely to
be roaming roads in large numbers for many years yet. Google
has been testing self-driving cars since 2009, though, and
automakers such as Daimler DAIGn.DE , BMW BMWG.DE and
Volkswagen AG's VOWG_p.DE Audi unit have revealed cars that
can travel long distances without human intervention.
Trippe said Apple and Tesla would make logical partners in
autonomous cars because they have complementary, not duplicative
patents. Tesla's strength is propulsion technology, notably
batteries, while Apple's is in electronic navigation and
communication systems.
As the race to develop self-driving cars heats up,
automakers are also introducing more "semi-autonomous" driving
systems that handle tedious or tricky situations. Audi, for
instance, is expected to use the CES show to outline progress on
a system that allows cars to pilot themselves in traffic jams at
low speeds.