The autonomous car market will grow to an eye-watering $560 billion in the coming years, but many firms will end up road-kill in the race for market share.
The Detroit Bureau point out a new study by consulting firm AT Kearney estimates the market for autonomous vehicles will grow to $560 billion over the next 20 years.
Researchers surveyed 150 executives from tech, automotive and communications industries as part of the study. They found that, while the connected car market will eventually be huge, it will take two decades to overcome significant barriers to growth.
“While industry players have already developed or tested many of the technological building blocks, tough and tricky legal challenges remain, including new laws on accident liability, on where self-driving cars may operate, and on who may have a license,” AT Kearney said.
“Also, new traffic guidelines have to be developed for autopilot and for fully autonomous driving. The incentives to establish the right legal framework are high, and executives in our study are confident this framework will develop, probably with California as the pioneer,” the report added.
Are self-driving regulations the real traffic jam?
This comes against the backdrop of concerns that America could become a disjointed patchwork of incompatible and competing regulations for self-driving cars.
At this early stage in the technology’s evolution, many players are jockeying for position in an increasingly crowded field.
But AT Kearney cautions that as the market matures, many players in the self-driving vehicle race will end up crashing and burning along the side of the road.
“Manufacturers face hard questions as they jockey for position — from thinking about their value propositions, which core capabilities they need, and which players they should partner with, to developing business models that offer the best go-to-market strategies and the best chances to win,” said the report.
All of the major car manufacturers are already well committed to developing self-driving car technology.As well, many of the leading tech firms are competing as well.
Taxi market disruptor Uber is busy testing autonomous cars as part of a strategy to eventually integrate them it its ride-sharing fleet. And search giant Google continues to expand its autonomous vehicle testing program in a bid to remain the U.S. leader in the burgeoning technology.
