Autonomous vehicles are set to make a major gear change over the next decade, according to a new report.
The latest DossierPlus report from analysts Statista focuses on the market for self-driving cars and other autonomous vehicles.
It estimates that around a tenth of vehicles worldwide could be self-driving by 2030, with the autonomous vehicle market worth a total of $13.7bn (£10.6bn).
The report says that these vehicles are set to move away from the simulation conditions after millions of miles of testing.
Statista reports that some big players have invested heavily into the autonomous vehicle market, with Uber having invested more than $1bn over the past three years alone.
Start-up funding in the area has increased by around 10 times over the past half-decade.
It reached a record level of $27.5bn (£21.3bn) in 2018, with $3.4bn heading to General Motors subsidiary Cruise alone.
Some traditional carmakers had come under pressure, however, with large amounts of capital needed to train employees and carry out the necessary research.
These costs were proving difficult to bear in some cases, with the wide-scale commercialisation of self-driving cars still at least a decade away.
Consumer confidence in autonomous vehicles is key
Statista said that while it believed that the market would explode in the next 10 years, it did depend on both the acceptance of consumers and the ability of manufacturers to scale up their production of self-driving models.
Safety and security remained concerns for consumers.
Many worried that self-driving cars would be vulnerable to attacks by hackers, with 70% feeling that they could be at risk.
As well as private vehicles, the market would rely heavily on ‘robo-taxis’ and self-driving public transport.
The study noted that billions had already been spent on research and development of automated taxis.
It also identified some of the regions where autonomous vehicles were likely to come through first.
These included California, where plenty of testing has already been done, and the cities of Beijing and Hamburg, which have set up infrastructure for ‘geo-fenced’ vehicles that can only operate within a certain area.
Statista estimated that Hamburg could be operating autonomous public transport systems as early as next year.
Advanced driving (AD) and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) were also expected to have an impact on the market as they spurred growth in sensors and other relevant technologies.
Today’s news was brought to you by TD SYNNEX – the UK’s number one solutions distributor.
