3 Driverless Car Stocks to Buy and Hold for at Least a Decade

"Autonomous vehicles have arrived for both rideshare and trucking," Goldman Sachs Research analyst Mark Delaney wrote this summer. "We believe the key focus for investors is now on the pace at which AVs [autonomous vehicles] will grow and how big the market will become, rather than if the technology works."

That's an exciting statement. Goldman Sachs' research also estimates that robotaxis' rideshare market will post a compound annual growth rate of roughly 90% from 2025 to 2030, at which point autonomous vehicles will generate about $7 billion in annual revenue with only 8% of the U.S. rideshare market. There's a lot of growth to be had as autonomous vehicles, robotaxis, and driverless trucks hit the roads.

Many investors are intrigued by the potential of driverless car stocks, but many aren't quite sure where to look yet. Here are three potentially monster driverless car stocks to consider.

It's all about the chip

Analog Devices (NASDAQ: ADI) is one of the world's largest makers of analog and mixed-signal chips, with a notably strong presence in analog signal processing chips. In the years ahead, the company is well positioned to thrive as more advanced and higher-priced semiconductor content fills automobiles, communications equipment, medical devices, and factory automation equipment.

Image source: Getty Images.

An especially intriguing and promising end market for Analog Devices is the automotive sector, where semiconductors are required to enable sensors, active safety systems, and advanced infotainment systems. But that's just the status quo. Electric vehicles (EVs) have even more semiconductor chip content per car, and driverless electric vehicles even more than that. Also, just for bonus points, ADI is positioned with a market share lead in battery management systems for electric vehicles.

EVs will drive lithium demand

Albemarle (NYSE: ALB) is one of the world's largest lithium producers, which easily generates the majority of its total profits. It produces lithium from its own salt brine assets in Chile, the United States, and two joint venture interests in Australian mines. Fun fact: Its Chilean operation is among the world's lowest-cost sources of lithium, putting its product and pricing in demand. Albemarle also owns resources in the U.S. and Argentina that are still in the early development phase, which will enable the company to boost its lithium volumes down the road.

It isn't at all far-fetched to think that as EV adoption increases, and eventually goes mainstream,, the company could post double-digit annual growth in global lithium demand over the next decade and perhaps longer.

And now might be a good time to look to the future and start a small position in this stock. That's because a lithium mine of rival Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) was temporarily shut down due to expired permits. That shutdown was expected to last six to 12 months, though ended up being only one month, meaning the lithium market will remain oversupplied for the near term, but prices could rise by mid-to-late 2026.

Better yet, according to Morningstar estimates, long-term lithium prices should average around $20,000 per metric ton, compared to current prices of roughly $9,500 per metric ton.

The holy grail of batteries

Over the past six months, QuantumScape (NYSE: QS) gave investors a taste of what future share gains could look like, soaring 310% over that time frame. QuantumScape is in the extreme early stages of its story and is attempting to produce solid-state lithium-metal batteries at commercial volume, which has yet to be done.

These solid-state batteries would excel in five critical metrics: energy density, charging speed, lifespan, safety, and cost-effectiveness. Basically, QuantumScape is hard at work ramping up testing and accelerating the production process of batteries that would propel the EV industry forward significantly.

QuantumScape also gave investors a taste of reality recently. On paper, these batteries may become be holy grail for the EV industry, but many investors remain in an "I'll believe it when I see it" mindset. While that's fair, QuantumScape did let its technology jump off the paper and demonstrated a Ducati motorcycle equipped with QSE-5 battery cells, which were produced using QuantumScape's highly anticipated Cobra production process -- a process that's one step closer to commercial volume production levels.

Remember these names

Electric vehicles are slowly taking over global roads -- in some regions faster than others -- and driverless vehicles are also slowly gaining traction as companies work through the technology and policy makers sift through and determine regulations.

There will be massive bumps in the road, to be sure, and the road is a long one. But these three companies offer exposure to the future of driverless vehicles through Albemarle's lithium, which should continue to be in high demand as EVs take over the roads, and through Analog Devices' semiconductor chips, which will see huge demand from electric driverless vehicles. Meanwhile, QuantumScape could be a generational winner if the company executes commercial volume of solid-state batteries.

If you're interested in investing in the long-term future of the automotive industry, keep these three stocks on your watch list; they could end up being monsters.

Daniel Miller has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Goldman Sachs Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.