At Best Startup California we track over 300,000 Californian startups and over 1,500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and organisations we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
We’ve ranked the top 48 Autonomous Vehicles companies in San Francisco, California. The companies, startups and institutions listed in this article are all exceptional companies, well worth a follow. We have included links to their websites, socials and CrunchBase (if you’re interested in their financials).
We selected the organisations listed in this article based on:
- Track record
- Executive leadership
- Market share
- Innovation
- ESG rating
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Top Autonomous Vehicles Companies & Startups (San Francisco, California)
Bestmile
Bestmile is a fleet orchestration platform for mobility providers to deploy, manage and optimize AV and human-driven vehicle fleets.
Founder(s): Anne Mellano, Raphael Gindrat
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Cloud Computing, Machine Learning, Mobile, SaaS, Transportation
Follow:
Ike
Ike is a self driving truck startup, focused on building automation technology to help improve the trucking industry.
Founder(s): Alden Woodrow, Jur van den Berg, Nancy Sun
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Transportation
Follow:
CARVI
CARVI offers Vision-based Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) + Contextual Data Platform based on Driver Behaviors and 3D road data
Founder(s): Kevin Eunsu Lee
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Autonomous Vehicles, Big Data, Computer Vision, Fleet Management, InsurTech, Mapping Services, Peer to Peer, Rental, Ride Sharing
Follow:
Point One Navigation
Point One Navigation is building a centimeter accurate localization service for the future of transportation.
Founder(s): Aaron Nathan, Bryan Galusha
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Industrial Automation, Robotics
Follow:
Faction
Faction is a Silicon Valley startup that develops driverless solutions based on light electric vehicles.
Founder(s): Ain McKendrick
Location: South San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Autonomous Vehicles, Logistics, Ride Sharing, Transportation
Follow:
Zendrive
Zendrive leverages mobile sensor data to provide actionable insights that improve safety for passengers and drivers worldwide.
Founder(s): Jonathan Matus, Pankaj Risbood
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Big Data, Internet, Mobile
Follow:
Swift Navigation
Swift Navigation offers hardware and software that makes GPS positioning technology available for autonomous vehicle and device guidance.
Founder(s): Colin Beighley, Fergus Noble, Timothy Harris
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Autonomous Vehicles, Drones, GPS, Hardware, Robotics, Software
Follow:
Phantom Auto
Phantom Auto is a software company that offers teleoperation safety solutions and remote operations for logistics vehicles.
Founder(s): Elliot Katz, Ohad Dvir, Shai Magzimof
Location: South San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Logistics, Robotics, Software
Follow:
Ridecell
Ridecell provides car-sharing, ride-sharing, short-term leases, and autonomous vehicle fleet services for car rental companies.
Founder(s): Aarjav Trivedi, ArunKumar Elangovan, Steve Dickerson
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Car Sharing, Fleet Management, Ride Sharing, Transportation
Follow:
Civil Maps
Civil Maps Provides a Sensor-agnostic Cognition Platform and Pipeline that Enables City Scale HD 3D Mapping, Edge Mapping and Localization.
Founder(s): Anuj Gupta, Fabien Chraim, Scott Harvey, Sravan Puttagunta
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Vehicles, Robotics, Software
Follow:
Scooterson
Intelligent electric vehicles of the future.
Founder(s): Deepansh Jain, Flavius Balaj, Mihnea de Vries
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Electric Vehicle, Last Mile Transportation, Sharing Economy, Transportation
Follow:
Phizzle
The First IoT Solution to Remotely Operate Multi-Vendor Particle Counters in Scientific Data Applications.
Founder(s): Benjamin Davis
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Aerospace, Autonomous Vehicles, Industrial Automation, Oil and Gas, Pharmaceutical, Smart Cities, Telecommunications, Transportation
Follow:
Ouster
Ouster builds high-resolution lidar sensors for autonomous vehicles, robotics, and many other applications.
Founder(s): Angus Pacala, Mark Frichtl
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Autonomous Vehicles, Electronics, Hardware, Manufacturing, Robotics, Sensor
Follow:
Built Robotics
Built Robotics transforms heavy equipment into autonomous robots for the $1 trillion earthmoving industry.
Founder(s): Andrew Liang, Noah Ready-Campbell
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Vehicles, Construction, Industrial, Industrial Automation, Machine Learning, Manufacturing, Robotics, Software
Follow:
ChargeWheel
ChargeWheel operates an on-demand charging solution for operators of electric vehicles and micromobility fleets in California.
Founder(s): Muhammad Huzaifa
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Autonomous Vehicles, Electric Vehicle, Energy, GreenTech, Ride Sharing, Transportation
Follow:
Starsky Robotics
Starsky Robotics is a San Francisco-based autonomous trucking company.
Founder(s): Kartik Tiwari, Stefan Seltz-Axmacher
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Autonomous Vehicles, Robotics, Transportation
Follow:
Camp Six Labs
A Metal Lattice Printer for the built world.
Founder(s): Clement Gires, Hannah Droesbeke
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Air Transportation, Autonomous Vehicles, Freight Service, Service Industry
Follow:
zing robotics
Sustainable Autonomy For Efficiency
Founder(s): Brent Shedd, Dante Zeviar, Ray Ames, Yao Zhai
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Industrial Automation, Logistics, Robotics
Follow:
Navmii
Navmii uses crowdsourcing and AI technology to build both traditional map data for navigation systems and HD map data for autonomous cars.
Founder(s): Andrey Trifonov, Matt Thornhill, Peter Atalla
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Machine Learning, Mapping Services, Mobile, Navigation, Software
Follow:
Tensil
Tensil is a semiconductor company that provides custom chips for machine learning.
Founder(s): Peter Hizalev, Tom Alcorn
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Autonomous Vehicles, Internet of Things, Machine Learning, Manufacturing, Semiconductor
Follow:
Trucks Venture Capital
Trucks Venture Capital funds the entrepreneurs building the future of transportation.
Founder(s): Jeffrey Schox, Kathryn Schox, Reilly Brennan
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Electric Vehicle, Smart Cities, Transportation
Follow:
Bossa Nova Robotics
Bossa Nova Robotics is a provider of real-time, on-shelf product data for the global retail industry.
Founder(s): David Palmer, Martin Hitch, Sarjoun Skaff
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Vehicles, Cloud Computing, Computer Vision, Human Computer Interaction, Retail Technology, Robotics, Software
Follow:
Dispatch
Dispatch is creating a platform for local delivery powered by a fleet of autonomous vehicles.
Founder(s): Sonia Jin, Stav Braun, Uriah Baalke
Location: South San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Autonomous Vehicles, Delivery, Robotics
Follow:
Mirada Technologies
Mirada Technologies develops the enabling components for advanced LiDAR.
Founder(s): Andrew Miner, Jon Mapel
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Industrial Automation, Manufacturing, Robotics, Sensor
Follow:
RideOS
RideOS offers marketplaces/mapping services for ride-hailing fleets
Founder(s): Chris Blumenberg, Justin Ho
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Autonomous Vehicles, Mapping Services, Navigation, Software, Transportation
Follow:
Hannah Systems
Partnering with cities to deliver the next generation of open and ethically managed traffic data.
Founder(s): Kari Koskinen, Martin Mantalvanos, Melani Ross
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Developer APIs, Developer Platform, Information Services, Machine Learning, SaaS, Software
Follow:
Otto
Otto is designing a new approach to modern transportation, starting with self-driving trucks.
Founder(s): Anthony Levandowski, Claire Delaunay, Don Burnette, Lior Ron
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Electric Vehicle, Logistics, Robotics, Software, Transportation
Follow:
GVA Capital
GVA Capital is an early-stage, Silicon Valley based VC firm with $120m under management
Founder(s): Magomed Musaev, Pavel Cherkashin
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Asset Management, Autonomous Vehicles, Financial Services, Venture Capital
Follow:
Synapse AI
Decentralized AI + Blockchain – Creating a network that will power all devices and enables AI agents to grow and learn together, globally.
Founder(s): Dan Gailey
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Vehicles, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Drones, Internet of Things, Machine Learning, Robotics, Software
Follow:
SafeMode
Driver- centric fleet management platform
Founder(s): Ido Levy
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Big Data, Fleet Management, Logistics, Supply Chain Management
Follow:
Qibus
Making Autonomous Mobility a Reality
Founder(s): Kristina Aksenova, Leanid Tsurankou
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Autonomous Vehicles, Car Sharing, Software, Transportation
Follow:
GridMatrix
GridMatrix is equipping cities with AI powered software for intelligent traffic congestion, accident, and emissions reduction
Founder(s): Jonathan Haylock, Nicholas D’Andre, Scott Hazard
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Vehicles, Big Data, Information Technology, Internet of Things, Logistics, Machine Learning, Software, Transportation
Follow:
Hermes Robotics
Hermes Robotics buildes autonomous truck technology to make roads safer and reduce urban congestion.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles
Follow:
Make
Make provides rapid prototyping and manufacturing services using industrial 3D printing.
Founder(s): Nishat Rustagi, Vince Pane
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: 3D Printing, Autonomous Vehicles, Consumer Electronics, Drones, Hardware, Manufacturing, Robotics, Wearables
Follow:
Propulsioneers
Propulsioneers develops technology building blocks designed for autonomy and driven by software for maximum output and minimal footprint.
Founder(s): Chris Martellotti
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Autonomous Vehicles, Drones, Electric Vehicle, Energy Efficiency, Industrial Automation, Industrial Design, Industrial Engineering, Industrial Manufacturing, Manufacturing, Robotics
Follow:
Explorer.ai
Making self-driving cars possible for everyone, everywhere.
Founder(s): Akshay Goel, Nagasrikanth Kallakuri, Tushar Dadlani
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Autonomous Vehicles, Mapping Services, Software
Follow:
byteRyde
Insurance for Self-Driving Cars
Founder(s): Josh Stinson, Patrick Cohen
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Autonomous Vehicles, Insurance
Follow:
Step AI
Autonomous systems for the future
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Vehicles
Follow:
AllianceAPI
Enhanced Consumer Experience through Secured Global Connected IoT via AllianceAPI universal API
Founder(s): Craig Scheldroup, David Marcaccini, Sumit Dhoopar
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Vehicles, Cloud Infrastructure, Cyber Security, Information Technology, Internet of Things, Machine Learning, SaaS, Smart Cities
Follow:
Dczd.tech
DCZD.TECH is a Robotics Management platform where companies can organize autonomous robotics operations and monetize robots-as-a-service.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Vehicles, Drones, Human Resources, Robotics, Software
Follow:
NuronLabs
Location-specific neural networks
Founder(s): Bhav Ashok, Jun Kwak
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Software
Follow:
TAMSIN
TAMSIN develops autonomous management systems.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Autonomous Vehicles, Information Technology
Follow:
Faction
Faction specializes in developing driverless vehicles that have the speed and performance of cars.
Founder(s):
Location: South San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Transportation
Follow:
The Truck Driver Guy
Artificial Intelligence, Saas, Machine Learning,Industrial Automation, robotics, logistics,Autonomous Vehicles, Transportation
Founder(s): Demyan Lavor
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Industrial Automation, Logistics, Machine Learning, Robotics, Supply Chain Management, Transportation
Follow:
City Rent a Car
City Rent-a-Car offer a wide-range of reliable vehicles & industry-leading customer service.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Autonomous Vehicles, Customer Service, Rental
Follow:
Embark Trucks
Embark develops self-driving truck technology designed for freight and logistic services.
Founder(s): Alex Rodrigues, Brandon Moak
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Logistics, Transportation
Follow:
Don’s Autobody
Don’s Autobody is an automotive-based firm that deals in sales of automotive parts & repair of vehicles.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Sales
Follow:
Cruise
Cruise builds self-driving vehicles that safely connect people to places, things, and experiences they care about.
Founder(s): Daniel Kan, Kyle Vogt
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Manufacturing, Robotics, Software, Transportation
Follow: