According to the “Smart Vehicle Market: Autonomous, Connected, and Smart City Infrastructure Integrated 2019-2024” report from ResearchAndMarkets, the smart vehicle market will be worth $172.3 billion by 2024.
The research group says that autonomous vehicles are poised to invoke a revolution in the automobile industry including public transportation systems, car rental and sharing systems, vehicle leasing and ownership, industrial transportation, and automotive insurance practices and systems. The degree of autonomy in vehicles is measured levels from zero (fully human-operated) to five (fully automated system) with the evolution from levels 1 through 4 consisting of an autopilot system combined with some level of human control or intervention capability. Autonomous vehicles are anticipated to become the foundation of transportation as a service globally, predicts ResearchAndMarkets.
Market leading autonomous vehicle use cases will be found primarily within the business realm an emphasis on shipping and commercial fleets, adds the research group. By way of example, Kroger is using unmanned autonomous vehicles to deliver groceries in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Commercial operation of self-driving cabs (also referred to as robo taxis) is the goal of market-leading human transport companies such as Uber and Lyft as autonomous vehicles will significantly reduce the cost per mile for personnel transport. The evolution of self-driving vehicles for the fleet market will be human controlled fleets to machine/human controlled fleets to completely autonomous (e.g. machine driven) vehicles that leverage various technologies including sensors, AI, cognitive computing, geo-fencing, GIS/mapping, and more, predicts ResearchAndMarkets.