Autonomous vehicles are quickly becoming part of our everyday lives, rather than simply the ideas of science fiction writers. There are many companies working to bring self-driving cars to the public. Currently, autonomous vehicles are in development and testing phases.

The five companies in this list are working steadily in the race to become the first company to design, manufacture and sell a fleet of street-ready autonomous vehicles:

1. Pony.ai
Primarily focused on research, this Chinese company’s approach is a series of six components: localization and map, perception, prediction, planning and control, infrastructure, and hardware. They have tested their vehicles under extreme weather conditions in several cities in China and in the US near Silicon Valley. In the future, they plan to use their technology in a wide variety of vehicles, making self-driving cars accessible to the public.

2. Volvo
Volvo has partnered with Didi Gemini, which is a type of autonomous vehicle technology. The XC90 is their first fully autonomous vehicle, and it is designed to be used for a taxi service that will be available in 2022. Volvo’s earliest autonomous car was the XC60, which was tested as a Robo taxi in Shanghai China. They are also working on a fleet of self-driving transport vehicles that are designed to be used on major roads and highways.

3. Tesla Motors
Tesla, headed by owner and founder Elon Musk, is the most recognizable name in the autonomous car industry. The company is also possibly the closest to having a fully autonomous vehicle ready for sale and production. They first gained fame for having one of the first fully electric vehicles available to consumers. The company is working on a fully autonomous vehicle, which is currently undergoing safety testing. Tesla’s software for this autonomous vehicle is in the beta testing phase, which began on September 10th. This software will allow Tesla’s autonomous car to handle lane changes, traffic sign detection, and full navigation.

4. Voyage
Voyage is working on a number of products in the race to build a fully autonomous car. The big focus of this company is in creating an AI known as Commander, designed to act and react as if it were human while driving the vehicle. Voyage has partnered with First Transit to create autonomous taxis that are used by retirement communities in San Jose, CA, and Florida.

5. Waymo
Waymo’s focus is self-driving vehicles used to transport goods across the country and around the world. These vehicles originally began as Google’s self-driving project and have since branched off to become an independent company. In addition to its fleet of transport vehicles, the company is also developing self-driving taxis. Currently, these taxis are available for hire in Phoenix, AZ, and San Francisco, CA.

All of these companies have made tremendous strides in the last few years, thanks to technology like cameras, AI interfaces, and detection systems that make driving safer and less challenging.