These 19 companies are racing to build self-driving cars in the next 5 years

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There's no question that self-driving cars are coming — the real debate at this point is who will get there first.

We rounded up a whopping 20 companies — from traditional automakers to Silicon Valley start-ups — who are working to build a self-driving car by 2021. Naturally, when we will see a fully driverless car hinges just as much on the regulatory environment as advancements in self-driving tech.

But companies are plowing ahead with getting their self-driving cars ready by as early as 2021. Scroll down to see all the players in the self-driving car space:

Tesla recently made a big move to meet its goal of having a fully self-driving car ready by 2018.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced in late October that cars currently in production — which includes the Model S, Model X, and future Model 3 — will be built with new hardware that will enable them to be fully driverless, pending regulatory approval and further software validation.

It's a smart move on Musk's part — equip the cars with the necessary technology now so they are ready once self-driving cars gain federal approval. Musk said a Tesla will drive itself from Los Angeles to New York City as a demonstration of the technology by the end of 2017.

Musk has been committed to having a fully self-driving car ready by 2018.

Uber is letting people take a ride in its self-driving cars in both Pittsburgh and Arizona.

Uber released Ford Fusion cars modified with the company's self-driving tech as part of its Pittsburgh pilot in September. In December, Uber launched another pilot program in San Francisco, but shut it down after the DMV threatened legal action for not obtaining the proper permits.

Now, the Uber cars are being testing in both Pittsburgh and Arizona.

A select few Uber users can hail the cars as part of the program. But the cars still have a safety driver as well as an engineer up front because they do fail from time to time.

Uber and Volvo have also agreed to a $300 million alliance to develop driverless cars. Uber has made a play for the self-driving car space by poaching staff from Carnegie Mellon University's robotics department.

Uber also acquired self-driving truck start-up Otto in August. The self-driving truck completed a 120-mile route in October.

Google spun out its self-driving car unit into an independent company, called Waymo, in December. Waymo is now operating under Google's parent company Alphabet.

Waymo CEO John Krafcik said the company is getting "close to bringing this to a lot of people," during the company's media launch. Waymo has teamed up with Fiat Chrysler and there are reports that the two will launch a robot taxi service by the end of 2017.

Waymo has yet to confirm the reports on the taxi service, but is testing a fleet of 100 Chrysler minivans in Arizona and California. The company is also building all of its self-driving hardware in-house.

Waymo ditched its vision for a steering-wheel-less car after suffering a series of executive departures. Waymo has said it's not interested in building a car, but in selling the tech to automakers. Building its own self-driving hardware is in-line with this strategy.