12 Best Autonomous Trucking and Vehicle Stocks To Buy Now

Published September 27, 2023 at 2:00 pm EDT Updated August 19, 2026 at 10:48 am EDT

In this article, we discuss the 12 best autonomous trucking and vehicle stocks to buy now.

According to Allied Market Research, the size of the autonomous vehicle industry is set to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 40% between 2021 and 2030. At the end of 2020, the size of the autonomous vehicle and trucking industry was valued at $76.13 billion. It is anticipated to reach $2.16 trillion by the end of this decade. The global autonomous vehicle market can be broken down into six sub-categories, namely application, automation, component, propulsion type, region, and vehicle type. According to a report released by leading management consulting firm McKinsey in January 2023, autonomous driving has the potential to contribute $300 billion to $400 billion to the top line of companies involved in this industry by 2035. Within this estimate, around $170 billion to $230 billion is expected to be contributed by Level 4 automation, which refers to a high level of automation where the vehicle can drive itself under certain conditions, but a human driver must be able to take over when the system requests. The driver does not need to constantly monitor the driving environment. The analysts at McKinsey believe that the hardware and software cost of Level 3 and Level 4 automation could be as high as $5,000 per vehicle. McKinsey anticipates that 12% of new passenger cars sold by 2030 will have at least Level 3 autonomous driving capabilities. Meanwhile, the adoption of advanced autonomous driving technologies is expected to reduce the number of accidents by 15% in Europe by 2030.

Transforming the Trucking Industry with Autonomous Technology

Investing in the best autonomous driving stocks requires a long-term view. Numerous self-driving car companies such as Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL), and NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) have introduced autonomous vehicles across various cities in the US and across the world. Investors who opt for an early buy-in into this theme could see a significant upside down the line. The introduction of autonomous technology into the trucking industry holds significant importance due to its critical role in various industries’ supply chains. It’s worth noting that trucks are involved in over 500,000 accidents annually, equivalent to 9.5% of total accidents in the US. Truck drivers have a 10 times higher probability of death on the job as compared to an average American. According to the CEO of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based autonomous technology provider Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ:AUR), Chris Urmson, 29 of the 30 incidents that took place between Dallas and Houston could have been avoided if Aurora Driver had operated the truck instead of a human. This reflects the high level of safety guaranteed by autonomous driving technologies. The company is working on introducing completely autonomous driving trucks without the presence of a human by the end of 2024. This could play a pivotal role in overcoming the shortage of long-haul truck drivers in the US, which currently stands at 80,000 and is anticipated to double by 2030. Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ:AUR) is considered among the best under-the-radar autonomous vehicle stocks. You can also check out the 10 Best EV, Battery and Autonomous Driving ETFs here.

Regulatory Developments in Autonomous Driving

The autonomous driving industry received a win when the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, vetoed the bill that would have required a human to be present at all times when an autonomous truck was on the road in the Golden State. Experts believe that the Silicon Valley state already has the toughest regulations for autonomous vehicles in the US. The state has only allowed light-duty trucks on its public roads, and companies must undergo numerous tests before deploying any new automobile-related technology on the roads. Meanwhile, China is also amongst the countries at the forefront of promoting autonomous driving technology. In Beijing, the world’s first fully connected cloud-controlled autonomous driving demonstration zone has been established. Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) is a leading name in the autonomous driving industry in China through its Apollo Go division. During the first quarter of 2023, approximately 42% of new passenger vehicles sold in China were equipped with varying levels of autonomous driving assistance features. China boasts a vast network of over 20,000 kilometers (km) of roads available for autonomous vehicle testing. With this context in mind, let’s take a look at our autonomous driving companies’ rankings.

12 Best Autonomous Trucking and Vehicle Stocks To Buy Now

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Our Methodology

We have shortlisted the 12 best autonomous driving stocks to buy using Insider Monkey’s database of 910 elite hedge funds. Each of the companies listed below provides exposure to either one or multiple sub-categories of the autonomous trucking and vehicle industry. We have ranked the best autonomous driving stocks in ascending order of the number of hedge funds holding a stake in them as of Q2 2023.

Best Autonomous Trucking and Vehicle Stocks To Buy Now

12. Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 36

Value of Hedge Fund Holdings: $1,759,298,500

Market Capitalization: $46.62 billion

Baidu, Inc. is a Beijing, China-based artificial intelligence (AI) and internet company. Baidu, Inc. has taken a major initiative to advance autonomous vehicles through its Apollo program. The company has been testing autonomous vehicles on public roads in China since 2018 using its Apollo open self-driving platform. Its test fleet has logged over 60 million kilometers of autonomous driving. Baidu, Inc. recently expanded its fleet of driverless taxis in Wuhan to 300.

Here’s what Ariel Investments said about Baidu, Inc. in its Q2 2023 investor letter:

“By comparison, after a strong run last quarter, China’s internet search and online community leader, Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) declined alongside a correction in Chinese stocks attributed to weak gross domestic product. We believe this price action runs counter to the company’s solid business fundamentals. Baidu delivered a top- and bottom-line earnings beat in the period, driven by a recovery in ad and cloud revenues. The company continues to invest heavily in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and is launching a generative AI, Ernie Bot, aimed at rivaling Open AI’s ChatGPT. While monetization of the new technology is largely dependent on regulatory review, we think Baidu should continue to experience margin improvement with the ongoing implementation of efficiency and profitability initiatives. While some investors remain on the sidelines due to uncertainty surrounding China’s economic growth, government regulations, and the political rhetoric towards Taiwan, we remain enthusiastic about Baidu’s longer-term opportunity for revenue growth and margin expansion across internet search, cloud, autonomous driving, artificial intelligence and online video.”

11. Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 38

Value of Hedge Fund Holdings: $404,462,190

Market Capitalization: $3.84 billion

Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT) is a San Francisco, California-based ride-hailing service provider and a competitor of Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:UBER) in the North American region. The company claims to have provided 100,000 rides in autonomous vehicles. Lyft, Inc. is developing self-driving car technology through its Level 5 division. Level 5 aims to build ridesharing vehicles that can operate safely without human drivers. The company is at the eleventh position on our list of the best autonomous driving stocks to buy now.

ClearBridge Investments shared its stance on Lyft, Inc. in its Q2 2023 investor letter. Here’s what the firm said:

“The sale of rideshare provider Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT), similar to our moves in communication services, prunes a smaller position to consolidate the portfolio in our highest conviction ideas. We initially purchased Lyft in May 2021 when rideshare volumes were still depressed due to COVID-19. While Lyft was a clear #2 behind Uber in domestic rideshare, we believed it was a cleaner way to play the U.S. recovery due to the focused nature of its business. However, poor execution and the uneven nature of the U.S. recovery, with West Coast markets where Lyft has historically had greater exposure lagging due to a lack of return to office work, further weakened its market position. In March, Lyft announced co-founder Logan Green would step down as CEO with David Risher, a former Amazon executive, taking his place. While Risher has laid out ambitions to drive Lyft’s market share higher, we believe doing so will require more than a few quarters fix. Furthermore, while the company has looked for areas to right size their cost base, we see necessary investments in price, service levels and product differentiation to drive this turnaround further pushing out the path to improved profitability.”

10. Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 40

Value of Hedge Fund Holdings: $895,505,810

Market Capitalization: $49.75 billion

Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) has established a dedicated subsidiary known as Latitude AI solely focused on the development of autonomous driving technology. The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker intends to bring together experts in the field of machine learning, operations, sensors, software, and systems engineering together for the advancement of autonomous driving technology. Ford Motor Company has recorded over 50 million miles of hands-free driving through its Active Driving Assistance System, Ford BlueCruise.

9. Aptiv PLC (NYSE:APTV)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 40

Value of Hedge Fund Holdings: $1,823,077,500

Market Capitalization: $27.69 billion

Aptiv PLC (NYSE:APTV) is a Troy, Michigan-based automotive technology company focused on advanced safety, connectivity, and self-driving solutions for major automakers. The company has the distinction of rolling out autonomous ride-hailing services on a commercial level in the city of Las Vegas. As of 2023, Aptiv PLC has provided over 100,000 self-driving rides to the general public and claims it has received 100% ratings from 98% of the customers.

Here’s what Artisan Partners said about one of the best autonomous driving stocks in its Q2 2023 investor letter:

“Along with Catalent, we ended our investment campaigns in Aptiv PLC (NYSE:APTV) and Nasdaq during the quarter. Aptiv is a leading provider of safety, infotainment and electronic control components to the automotive market. Our view was that the company was well-positioned to benefit from several strong secular industry trends—the shift from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles, autonomous driving and increased computing intensity in vehicles. Over our holding period, a volatile macro environment (pandemic, supply chain shortages) steadily weighed on the profit cycle despite the company’s strong new business announcements. Furthermore, we believe the company may be increasingly disadvantaged as leading auto manufacturers work around tier-one suppliers (such as Aptiv) to maximize profits and speed to market. While the profit cycle may ultimately take hold, we concluded that several of our semiconductor holdings (ON Semiconductor, Lattice Semiconductor and Monolithic Power Systems) offer stronger leverage to these important new auto trends and decided to exit the position.”

8. General Motors Company (NYSE:GM)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 72

Value of Hedge Fund Holdings: $2,513,405,900

Market Capitalization: $44.82 billion

General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) is betting heavily on autonomous vehicles as it anticipates generating annual revenue of $50 billion through its Cruise autonomous vehicle division by 2030. To achieve this goal, General Motors Company has expanded the presence of Cruise to cities in Arizona and Texas. Of the 910 hedge funds in Insider Monkey’s database at the end of Q2 2023, 72 funds reported owning a stake in General Motors Company.

7. QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 73

Value of Hedge Fund Holdings: $2,303,052,600

Market Capitalization: $120.17 billion

QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) is a San Diego, California-based chipmaker that is targeting the autonomous vehicle industry through the Snapdragon Ride platform. The platform integrates multiple critical components for self-driving, including cameras, radars, LIDAR processing, CUDA cores for neural network AI, functional safety capabilities, and autonomous driving software. QUALCOMM Incorporated claims that Snapdragon Ride delivers over 700 trillion operations per second to run deep learning-based perception and planning algorithms for autonomous vehicles. QUALCOMM Incorporated has secured the seventh position on our list of the best autonomous driving stocks to buy now.

6. Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 79

Value of Hedge Fund Holdings: $6,517,644,300

Market Capitalization: $777.25 billion

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) gains exposure to the autonomous driving industry through its Full Self Driving (FSD) software. The software can be either purchased for a lump-sum payment of $12,000 or a monthly payment of $199. FSD is Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system that uses onboard cameras, sensors, and neural net processing power to enable autonomous driving features in Tesla, Inc. vehicles. The platform’s capabilities include auto lane changing, automated parking, stopping at traffic lights and stop signs, and highway autopilot features.

Here’s what Baron Funds said about Tesla, Inc. in its Q2 2023 investor letter:

Many factors contributed to the strong performance of our largest Disruptive Growth position, Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA), in the period. Investors’ concerns regarding Tesla in 2022 continue to dissipate, and the company’s business has continued to grow materially, although at below peak margins. Tesla’s deliveries in China are recovering. The company’s newest factory in Texas has ramped production and should contribute to improved domestic sales and margins. U.S. government policies have lowered the cost to own Tesla vehicles, while also reducing the company’s battery production expenses.

We continue to believe that Tesla is only scratching the surface of its potential. We regard announced partnerships between Tesla and its competitors in the quarter as important. In early June, Tesla agreed to provide Ford Motors access to Tesla’s electric vehicle (EV) charging technology and network. Other traditional and pure EV manufacturers, including General Motors, Rivian, and Volvo, quickly followed suit. We expect additional charging partnerships to ensue. In our view, these relationships validate Tesla’s charging technology and infrastructure as superior to other standards. Consolidation around a single technology should accelerate charging infrastructure deployment, diminish the risk of Tesla’s technology becoming obsolete, and lessen a key concern of hesitant EV purchasers. EV adoption is at a tipping point. And Tesla, with its approximately 60% domestic market share of EVs, should be the most important beneficiary of this shift…” (Click here to read the full text)

In addition to Tesla, Inc., Amazon.com, Inc., Alphabet Inc., and NVIDIA Corporation are also some of the best autonomous driving stocks to buy now.

5. Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 86

Value of Hedge Fund Holdings: $3,968,815,700

Market Capitalization: $75.44 billion

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) is a major memory and storage manufacturer providing key components for advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicles. Autonomous driving generates huge amounts of sensor data that must be processed in real-time. Micron Technology, Inc. specializes in the development of fast, high-capacity memory and storage to enable this data crunching. For instance, Micron Technology, Inc.’s automotive-grade DRAM provides the necessary memory capacity for automated collision avoidance and self-driving systems to make rapid decisions.

4. Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:UBER)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 144

Value of Hedge Fund Holdings: $7,660,665,800

Market Capitalization: $90.75 billion

Uber Technologies, Inc. has joined forces with Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., to provide driverless car services on its food delivery and ride-hailing platform in late 2023. Uber Technologies, Inc. will be able to provide its customers with driverless car services for deliveries and rides through a limited number of Waymo vehicles within a 180-square-mile radius of Phoenix, Arizona.

Here’s what RiverPark Advisors said about Uber Technologies, Inc. in its Q2 2023 investor letter:

“Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:UBER): UBER was a top contributor for the quarter following better than expected 1Q23 earnings and 2Q23 guidance. Gross bookings of $31.4 billion were up 22% year over year. Mobility gross bookings of $15 billion grew 44% over the last year driven by a combination of product innovation and driver availability. Delivery gross bookings, also $15 billion, were up 12% from last year and accelerated through the quarter. 1Q Adjusted EBITDA of $761 million, up $593 million year over year, significantly beat management’s $660-$700 million guidance and the company generated $549 million of free cash flow versus a loss last year. Management guided to continuing growth in 2Q Gross Bookings (13%-17% growth) and Adjusted EBITDA (of $800- $850 million).

UBER remains the undisputed global leader in ride sharing, with a greater than 50% share in every major region in which it operates. The company is also a leader in food delivery, where it is number one or two in the more than 25 countries in which it operates. Moreover, after a history of losses, the company is now profitable, delivering expanding margins and substantial free cash flow. We view UBER as more than just ride sharing and food delivery, but also as a global mobility platform with the ability to sell to its 130 million users (by comparison, Amazon Prime has 200 million members) and penetrate new markets of on-demand services, such as package and grocery delivery, travel, truck brokerage (the company had $1.4 billion in Freight revenue for 1Q23), and worker staffing for shift work. Given its $4.2 billion of unrestricted cash and $5 billion of investments, the company today has an enterprise value of $84 billion, indicating that UBER trades at 20x next year’s estimated free cash flow.”

3. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 175

Value of Hedge Fund Holdings: $25,965,720,000

Market Capitalization: $1.03 trillion

NVIDIA Corporation made a strategic move in late August by appointing Wu Xinzhou, the former Vice President and head of autonomous driving operations at XPeng Inc. (NYSE:XPEV), as a leader of their automotive products division. Wu Xinzhou has been at the forefront of autonomous driving, overseeing a team of more than 1,000 engineers in both China and the United States since 2018.

Here’s what Harding Loevner said about NVIDIA Corporation in its Q2 2023 investor letter:

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) has been the biggest beneficiary this year in terms of its stock run and projected revenue gains. More companies- including, perhaps, some not yet in existence-will certainly join the ranks over time.

In the meantime, NVIDIA has emerged as the unrivaled global leader in providing the technologies at the center of the Al arms race. NVIDIA’s competitive advantage is the result of investments that began two decades ago, when it recognized an early opportunity to repurpose its video-game graphics chips for the heavy-load computing done in scientific research. This led management to expand the GPU business. It also spent years and significant resources developing a free software platform that’s exclusive to its chips called CUDA that allows developers to easily program its GPUs for a variety of computationally intensive applications. Researchers then began using both NVIDIA’s chips and CUDA to train the human-brain-inspired neural networks that power Al models.

Now, due to an explosion of demand related to generative Al and LLMs from across its customer base, NVIDIA projects that data-center revenue for its fiscal second quarter ending in July will surge to US$11 billion. Not only is that more than double last quarter’s total, but the forecast also shattered the average analyst estimate that called for about US$7 billion. Taking advantage of the stock’s meteoric rise, we reduced our holding (it has risen tenfold since we first purchased in 2018)…” (Click here to read the full text)

2. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 204

Value of Hedge Fund Holdings: $17,286,889,000

Market Capitalization: $1.65 trillion

Alphabet Inc. made its entry into the autonomous driving sector back in 2009 with the launch of the Google self-driving car project, presently known as Waymo. It was spun out as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. during the corporate restructuring in 2016. Waymo is widely considered a leader in autonomous driving technology, having logged over 20 million miles of public road testing and 20 billion miles of simulation across dozens of cities in the US.

Here’s what Artisan Partners said about Alphabet Inc. in its Q2 2023 investor letter:

“Our best performing stocks this quarter were Meta, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Heidelberg Materials. The rise in Alphabet’s share performance was primarily driven by the AI frenzy. Earlier this year, there were some doubts about Alphabet’s ability to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT product. This was a bit ironic since Alphabet has been using AI technology to improve its Google search results and advertising business for years. Indeed, the technology that underpins OpenAI’s ChatGPT actually came from Alphabet more than five years ago. But sometimes the market needs a reminder, and Alphabet provided tangible evidence of its capabilities. At a recent developer conference, it launched Bard, a consumer-oriented generative AI version of its search engine, as well as several other concrete examples of how AI could improve its current business. As with Meta, the long-term implications of AI on Alphabet’s business model are still far from certain. But we do believe that it is a technology leader in this field and will participate in whatever direction the technology develops.”

1. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 278

Value of Hedge Fund Holdings: $34,900,888,000

Market Capitalization: $1.33 trillion

Amazon.com, Inc. has a 17% and 5.2% stake in Rivian Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIVN) and Aurora Innovation, Inc., respectively. The Seattle, Washington-based technology giant intends to leverage these partnerships to develop autonomous driving technology tailored to its logistics business. The company also acquired Zoox in 2020, which is developing autonomous passenger vehicles to bolster the company’s self-driving expertise. Through its partnership with Aurora, Amazon.com, Inc. has launched an autonomous long-haul freight network called AWS Connected Vehicle Solution for trucks.

Here’s what Diamond Hill Capital said about Amazon.com, Inc. in its Q2 2023 investor letter:

“Among our top contributors were insurance company American International Group (AIG), auto retailer CarMax and global online retailer Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN).

Amazon’s management team has been working to improve retail profitability, and Q1 results showed progress. In the case of Amazon’s web services (AWS), the market has shifted its focus from where growth will bottom in the near term to how AI can help accelerate the adoption of public cloud services in the future. We believe Amazon’s competitive advantages will continue to grow and that the business has the potential to grow faster than the overall economy in the coming years.”

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