BYD Company Leads D20 to New High For 2nd Week in a Row

Sixteen price gainers out of the 20 Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index (D20) stocks, largely led by BYD Company, ensured this week was a positive one for the D20.

The index jumped 1.7 percent to end the week at 244.4, outpacing the Dow, which rose 0.4 percent, and the S&P 500, which inched up 0.1 percent.

BYD led the D20 for the second week in a row, continuing to ride the rumor wave that the Chinese government is considering phasing out fossil-fuel-based vehicles in some markets in favor of electric vehicles like those that BYD designs and manufacturers.

BYD’s ADR (BYDDY) price jumped 22 percent this week. It has soared 47 percent in value over the past two weeks, moving from $12 per share to $17.60.

Delphi (DLPH) has announced that it will be using Blackberry’s (BBRY) QNX system as the basis for its driverless technology platform. These two D20 companies are working towards a 2019 availability date and will integrate Blackberry’s QNX OS into Delphi’s Centralized Sensing and Location Planning (CSLP).

QNX’s reputation for security was one of the primary reasons Delphi selected it for its driverless operating system.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

Up-and-Comers:

Baidu, the Chinese search and AI giant, has announced that it has put together a $1.5-billion fund that will focus on driverless technology.

It also announced an upgraded version of its free Apollo driverless operating system, which includes new features like obstacle perception, planning, cloud simulation, high-definition (HD) maps and end-to-end deep learning in this version, numbered 1.5. Who will be Baidu’s first investment?