Autonomous vehicle and navigation patents: who is filing, and where the claim space is still open
20.2% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees hold 208 of 1,032 records in scope, a visible but not dominant concentration — most of the field sits with a long tail of smaller filers. Annual filings climbed from 63 in 2017 to a peak of 182 in 2022, then eased to 115 by 2024 — still 16% above the 2021 level of 99. Treat 2025 and 2026 figures as provisional; publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the true count for those years will rise as more records publish.
- 1FORD GLOBAL TECH LLC6.0%
- 2VOLKSWAGEN GROUP OF AMERICA INVESTMENTS LLC4.6%
- 3THE MASSENGILL FAMILY TRUST3.4%
- 4MOTIONAL AD LLC3.1%
- 5AURORA OPERATIONS INC3.1%
See the full autonomous vehicles & navigation patent landscape analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about autonomous vehicle patents
Who holds the most autonomous vehicle patents?
In this dataset of 1,032 records, one assignee leads the ranking with 62 records, roughly double the fifth-place figure of 32. That gap makes the leader a clear reference point, but the top five together hold only 20.2% of all records in scope, so no single company controls the field. A freedom-to-operate review should still cover the long tail of smaller filers rather than stopping at the leading names.
Is the autonomous vehicle patent field still growing?
Filings grew from 99 in 2021 to 115 in 2024, a 16% increase over that span, with 2022 marking the highest single year so far at 182 filings. Counts for 2025 and 2026 appear lower in the raw data, but that reflects publication lag of roughly 18 months rather than an actual slowdown — those years are still filling in. The safest reading is that filing activity has held steady at an elevated level since the 2022 peak rather than declined.
What technology areas do autonomous vehicle patents cover most?
Vehicle control classes dominate: B60W (hybrid/joint vehicle control) and G05D (control of non-electric variables) each appear in just under a third of the 1,032 records. Navigation and positioning classes, G01C and G01S, follow at 23.4% and 16.7% respectively. AI-model and image-recognition classes such as G06N, G06V and G06T are present but each cover roughly one in ten records, a smaller share than the control-focused classes despite the attention perception systems get in public discussion.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Autonomous Vehicles & Navigation Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.