3 Brilliant but Overlooked Driverless Vehicle Stocks to Buy and Hold for 10 Years

• Mobileye can be a play on robotaxis that avoids Tesla and its headwinds.

• Aptiv is bringing next-generation safety and autonomous vehicle technology.

• Hesai Group is a leader in lidar solutions and has secured a number of design wins.

• 10 stocks we like better than Mobileye Global ›

Like it or not, and whether we trust driverless vehicles yet or not, they’re on the way, and the future is coming faster than many investors realize. The driverless vehicle market has enormous growth potential and is projected to be worth trillions of dollars in a decade’s time.

Don’t take it from me: Goldman Sachs Research predicts that robotaxis’ ride-share market alone is on the path for a 90% compound annual growth rate between 2025 and 2030, and that’s merely scratching the surface. If you’re looking to dip your toes into what could be a generational investing opportunity, here are three stocks to keep an eye on.

Mobileye Global (NASDAQ: MBLY) is in the business of developing and deploying Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving technologies and solutions. With a comprehensive collection of software and hardware technologies, Mobileye can offer end-to-end products and services for automakers. Investors should look at Mobileye as a solid robotaxi investment for those who don’t want to deal with the drama currently surrounding Tesla.

With the automotive industry heading toward driverless vehicles, Mobileye’s technology and systems will bolster automotive safety, productivity, and vehicle utilization through solutions such as Supervision, Chauffeur, Drive, and EyeQ. Meanwhile, management has been working hard to secure new ADAS deals with large customers, while finding new opportunities with untapped clients. One driving force for the company is a growing adoption of multicamera setups due to the need for increased safety and a push toward hands-free highway driving.

Adding to Mobileye’s growth is its strategic partnerships, including ZEEKR, using Mobileye as its launch partner for its ADAS, and its design wins with automakers such as Porsche and Mahindra, among other major OEMs. Just this spring, Volkswagen announced a collaboration with Mobileye to improve safety and driving comfort for some of its upcoming vehicle pipeline.

The company remains unprofitable, with full-year guidance expecting an operating loss between $436 million to $512 million. That said, Mobileye boasts roughly $1.7 billion in cash and cash equivalents, rising free cash flow, very little debt, and should be able to navigate choppy waters as the industry slowly figures out the path to full autonomous vehicles.

Aptiv PLC (NYSE: APTV) is a technology company working to bring the next generation of active safety, autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and connectivity through its decades of experience pioneering advances in the automotive industry.

While the stock has faltered from its all-time highs as electric vehicle hype died down with slower-than-anticipated adoption in the U.S. market, it’s still performing well, with earnings expected to check in at $7.48 per share in 2025, up significantly from $2.61 in 2021 — a compound annual growth rate of 30%.

But its growth prospects might improve even more, with the company’s business split on the horizon for the first quarter of 2026. Aptiv plans to split into two companies: one that will focus on slower-growth electrical distribution systems (EDS), and the second on faster-growth safety and software — the latter aimed at a more driverless vehicle focus.

It’s easy to understand the rationale behind the business breakup when you consider the EDS business generated 2024 sales of $8.3 billion at earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) profit margins of 9.5%, while the safety and software generated 2024 sales of $12.2 billion with EBITDA margins nearly double at 18.8%.

The new Aptiv with a focus on safety and software that enable higher levels of autonomous functions won’t be limited to vehicles either, with potential applications for planes and other machines. Aptiv has already begun branching out its overall business with its communications software acquisition of Wind River in 2022.

Hesai Group (NASDAQ: HSAI) is a global leader in lidar solutions, with its products enabling a wide range of applications including passenger and commercial vehicles ADAS, autonomous vehicles, robotics, and nonautomotive applications such as last-mile delivery robots.

Throughout the company’s second quarter, Hesai secured a notable number of new design wins through 2026, with 20 models from nine leading OEMs, highlighted by a platform win for multiple 2026 models with one of its top two ADAS customers. The design wins help cement lidar as a standard feature across the specific customer’s model lineups and will drive the company’s order book higher in the near term.

Outside its automotive wins, the company’s robotics business is also doing well, ranking No. 1 in lidar shipments in China for the first half of 2025, per Gaogong Industry Research Institute. Its robotics business is well positioned for the wave of physical artificial intelligence (AI), with lidars becoming essential for AI to perceive and sort the dynamic world we operate in, especially in driverless vehicles.

“In the first six months of 2025, total shipments have already surpassed those of full-year 2024. According to Gasgoo, we ranked first in installation volume among long-range lidar suppliers during this period,” said Hesai cofounder and CEO Yifan “David” Li in a press release.

The number of robotaxis and driverless vehicles on the roads is set to increase in the coming years, especially as leading autonomous vehicle operators reduce costs and begin scaling the business. Right now, roughly 1,500 such vehicles operate across a handful of U.S. cities, but that figure is expected to soar to about 35,000 across the country in 2030.

Even then, driverless vehicles will represent a fraction of the rideshare market, leaving plenty of long-term growth for investors who believe these companies have injected their technologies and solutions into the industry. Mobileye, Aptiv, and Hesai are all proven companies with products poised to push the boundaries of driverless vehicles, robotaxis, and ADAS going forward, and savvy investors would be wise to keep them on a watch list.

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Daniel Miller has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Goldman Sachs Group and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends Aptiv, Mobileye Global, Porsche Automobil Se, and Volkswagen Ag. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

3 Brilliant but Overlooked Driverless Vehicle Stocks to Buy and Hold for 10 Years was originally published by The Motley Fool