Patent Theme
Autonomous Path Planning
Algorithms and systems for generating, optimizing, and executing trajectories for autonomous vehicles or robots to move through an environment, often involving obstacle avoidance, route validation, and goal reaching.
8,645 US filings from 1,439 companies since 2023 · 2023: 2,109 · 2024: 2,767 · 2025: 2,556 · 2026 YTD: 1,213
Aircraft & AerodynamicsUnmanned Aerial Vehicles (Drones)Navigation & GeodesyIndustrial & Autonomous ControlTraffic Control SystemsManipulators & RoboticsHarvesting & MowingImage Processing
Top companies
Ranked by filings in this theme since 2023. 2026 is partial.
| # | Company | Since 2023 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 YTD | YoY |
|---|
| 1 | Waymo LLC | 350 | 97 | 124 | 106 | 23 | -14.5% |
| 2 | GM Cruise Holdings LLC | 305 | 95 | 134 | 60 | 16 | -55.2% |
| 3 | Nvidia Corporation | 261 | 48 | 80 | 82 | 51 | +2.5% |
| 4 | Zoox, Inc. | 248 | 45 | 76 | 86 | 41 | +13.2% |
| 5 | TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA | 214 | 47 | 67 | 72 | 28 | +7.5% |
| 6 | Hyundai Motor Company | 180 | 36 | 56 | 51 | 37 | -8.9% |
| 7 | Motional AD LLC | 174 | 59 | 65 | 34 | 16 | -47.7% |
| 8 | GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC | 173 | 35 | 64 | 48 | 26 | -25.0% |
| 9 | Kia Corporation | 170 | 27 | 55 | 51 | 37 | -7.3% |
| 10 | HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD. | 168 | 30 | 48 | 68 | 22 | +41.7% |
| 11 | MOBILEYE VISION TECHNOLOGIES LTD. | 137 | 35 | 36 | 39 | 27 | +8.3% |
| 12 | Ford Global Technologies, LLC | 136 | 37 | 51 | 41 | 7 | -19.6% |
| 13 | Robert Bosch GmbH | 136 | 24 | 37 | 41 | 34 | +10.8% |
| 14 | Aurora Operations, Inc. | 132 | 9 | 38 | 63 | 22 | +65.8% |
| 15 | TUSIMPLE, INC. | 117 | 51 | 40 | 26 | · | -35.0% |
| 16 | TORC Robotics, Inc. | 91 | · | 18 | 45 | 28 | +150.0% |
| 17 | SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD. | 90 | 20 | 29 | 15 | 26 | -48.3% |
| 18 | International Business Machines Corporation | 82 | 35 | 20 | 19 | 8 | -5.0% |
| 19 | SONY GROUP CORPORATION | 81 | 19 | 22 | 32 | 8 | +45.5% |
| 20 | UATC, LLC | 78 | 42 | 33 | 3 | · | -90.9% |
| 21 | Argo AI, LLC | 77 | 45 | 32 | · | · | — |
| 22 | BAIDU USA LLC | 75 | 47 | 22 | 5 | 1 | -77.3% |
| 23 | HERE GLOBAL B.V. | 64 | 31 | 15 | 10 | 8 | -33.3% |
| 24 | Toyota Research Institute, Inc. | 63 | 26 | 22 | 9 | 6 | -59.1% |
| 25 | LG ELECTRONICS INC. | 59 | 25 | 19 | 11 | 4 | -42.1% |