Introducing The D20

Driverless Transportation announced the introduction of the “Driverless 20” or D20. The D20 is not the d20 role playing game introduced by the same people who brought you Dungeon and Dragons. The D20 is a stock index that tracks 20 publicly traded international companies that are some of the most influential in the area of Driverless Transportation. Similar to the Dow Jones Industrials (or even the less watched Dow Jones Transportation Average), the D20 is a stock price tracking index published weekly.

There are some parallels between the Dow Jones Industrials, first calculated in May of 1896, and the D20. Shortly after the Dow Industrials debuted, Henry Ford introduced the assembly line and the Model T, which revolutionized ground transportation. The D20 was introduced during a new era in ground transportation, the advent of Driverless Transportation.

The D20 index tracks four types of companies:

1. Vehicle – typically thought of as Automobile and Truck Manufacturers
2. Parts Supplier – typically thought of as Tier I, II or III supplier to the big automotive manufacturers
3. Technology companies – companies that create some combination of hardware, firmware and software will be the basis for Driverless technology
4. Technology OEM – Technology companies that have started designing (and possibility building) their own Driverless Vehicles

These four types of companies that combine vehicle and parts and design and manufacturing experience with the advanced computing technology will make Driverless Transportation a reality.

Here is the list of twenty companies included in the D20, with country of origin, company type and the stock trading symbol used:

1. BlackBerry Ltd. (Canada – Technology - BBRY)
2. BYD Company LTD (China – Technology OEM - BYDDY)
3. Continental AG (Germany – Parts Supplier - CTTAY)
4. Daimler AG (Germany – Vehicle - DDAIF)
5. Delphi Automotive PLC (USA – Parts Supplier - DLPH)
6. Denso Corporation (Japan – Parts Supplier - DNZOY)
7. Ford Motor Company (USA – Vehicle - F)
8. General Motors Company (USA – Vehicle - GM)
9. Google Inc. (USA – Technology OEM - GOOG)
10. Iteris Inc (USA – Technology - ITI)
11. KVH Industries, Inc. (USA – Technology - KVHI)
12. Mobileye NV Amsterdam (Israel – Technology - MBLY)
13. Nokia Corporation (Finland – Technology - NOK)
14. Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. (Japan – Vehicle - NSANY)
15. NVIDIA Corporation (USA – Technology - NVDA)
16. Tesla Motors Inc. (USA – Technology OEM - TSLA)
17. Valeo SA (France – Parts Supplier - VLEEY)
18. Visteon Corp. (USA – Parts Supplier - VC)
19. Volkswagen AG (Germany – Vehicle - VLKPY)
20. Volvo AB (Sweden – Vehicle - VOLVY)

As you can see there are nine different countries represented. It will take a global effort to introduce and deploy Driverless Technology, and it was important to have as many of the major countries represented as possible.

The index equals the total price of 1 share of each of the stocks in the index divided by 10. ADR prices are used for foreign companies and NYSE or NASDAQ prices for any company headquartered in the US, which allows everything to calculate in dollars and minimizes the work of tracking currency fluctuations. The price updates weekly based on the market closing prices each Friday (or the last week day if there is a Friday holiday that Wall Street observes). Tracking started on August 1st, 2014 with the D20 equal to 139.694. It was 141.766 at the close of the US markets on October 3rd, 2014.

Click here for more information on the D20 Stock Index.