These 5 companies will dominate driverless cars

YouTube/Alex Kushleyev

There's been quite the arms race for driverless cars, with many companies declaring that their technology will hit markets by 2020.

But a recent report released by Juniper Research, a mobile and digital market research firm, has listed the top five players that are most likely to bring self-driving cars to consumers.

The automakers were scored on the follow categories: time spent developing related technologies; first live test and other trials conducted; the number of miles tested on public roads; the size of the fleet; media coverage; employees working on autonomous projects; and future opportunities.

Some companies that were selected based on those factors were then interviewed by Juniper's research team to finalize the ranking, a Juniper Research spokesperson told Tech Insider. 

Here's a look at the top five players, according to the report. 

5. Apple

Apple has been notoriously hush about even confirming plans about creating a car. We have no knowledge of first trials or subsequent tests, and any tests that have been performed were on a former military facility (not public roads).

However, the California Department of Motor Vehicle did tell Tech Insider earlier this year that it had met with Apple to discuss rules for testing autonomous vehicles on public roads. 

The Wall Street Journal also reported earlier this year that Apple is gearing up to ship its first electric car in 2019, but that it would not be self-driving. 

Given that media coverage is a category for assessing Juniper's ranking, Apple coming in as a top leader does make some sense. But we'll have to wait until the company reveals more about its driverless car plans to know how it will actually stack up against its competitors. 

4. Tesla

Tesla is pushing to gets its driverless cars to market first and has already made some impressive progress. 

The company rolled out its semi-autonomous Autopilot system in October, which gives Tesla cars driverless capabilities like highway autosteer, automatic lane change, and self-parking.

Elon Musk also said earlier this year that he plans to have fully autonomous vehicles out in three years. That's earlier than most companies, who are currently running on a 2020 timeline.

Most recently, Musk said via Twitter that he was ramping up Tesla's Autopilot efforts and was looking to hire "hardcore software engineers."

3. Daimler

Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, ranks third on the list and has made a lot of progress developing the technology. 

Mercedes-Benz big-rig recently made history by driving itself on a public road (pictured above).

Thomas Weber, Daimler head of development, told Reuters in 2013 that the company wanted "to be the first to launch autonomous functions in production vehicles." 

"You can be sure we will accomplish that in this decade," he added, showing Daimler as a serious contender.