Global autonomous vehicle market competition may outpace US, JPM says

The international autonomous vehicle (AV) market may potentially be more competitive than the U.S. with several China-based players having announced expansion plans, J.P.Morgan says

Alphabet's GOOGL.O Waymo has announced expansion into Tokyo while Chinese firms including WeRide and Pony.ai have announced plans to expand into the Middle East and Europe - JPM

While Waymo has a headstart, U.S. AV market will see more players as Tesla TSLA.O, May Mobility, Amazon-owned AMZN.O Zoox and others are set to start commercial operations in the next 12-18 months - JPM

Tesla on Sunday deployed a small group of self-driving taxis picking up paying passengers in Austin, Texas

Tesla shares were up ~1% premarket

"Uber has already struck ~18 AV partnerships, and we believe it is becoming an increasingly valuable partner to AV tech providers as both a demand utilization platform and a fleet operator" - JPM

AV space will remain largely unprofitable until scale increases and vehicle costs "materially" decline, likely to under $100,000 - brokerage