Skip to main content

Autonomous vehicles are everywhere says report

A new IDTechEx report, Autonomous Vehicles: Land, Water, Air 2015-2035 claims autonomous vehicles are successful here and now but you are unlikely to meet one because the successes are in the upper atmosphere, open cast mines, nuclear power stations, underwater and in other relatively inaccessible places. It goes on to explains that the primary technology of an autonomous vehicle is that which confers autonomy and the powertrain, which is usually electric. The powertrain and navigation and control technolo
March 20, 2015 Read time: 3 mins
RSSA new 6582 IDTechEx report, Autonomous Vehicles: Land, Water, Air 2015-2035 claims autonomous vehicles are successful here and now but you are unlikely to meet one because the successes are in the upper atmosphere, open cast mines, nuclear power stations, underwater and in other relatively inaccessible places.  It goes on to explains that the primary technology of an autonomous vehicle is that which confers autonomy and the powertrain, which is usually electric.

The powertrain and navigation and control technology of autonomous vehicles are rapidly evolving with every element likely to change radically and many merging; indeed it is already happening right through to structural electronics where the load-bearing bodywork doubles as electrical and electronic components and circuits.
 
This is good news and bad news for autonomous vehicles. Good news in that functionality and affordability will improve but bad news in that long term testing is irrelevant when everything is frequently changing disruptively. What use is a five year test on a radar when a Lidar replaces it? What to do with long term tests on a battery when it is replaced by one of the new lithium-ion capacitors? All this vast number of new innovations can bring initial lack of reliability and predictability with them yet if anything has to be superlatively reliable and predictable it is the autonomous vehicle operating near people. The more people are in close proximity, the greater the challenge. AVs are particularly lethal if flying over a crowd of people or navigating a crowded road with pedestrians crossing.
 
From 2015-2025, most forms of autonomous vehicles are and will remain electric land and air vehicles. Electric powertrains are exceptionally controllable and they can directly activate and collaborate with other functions of the vehicle that are autonomously managed in coordination with steering and navigation. For example, an autonomous electric tractor will operate implements with great precision when they are electrically driven from the electric powertrain of the vehicle. This is invaluable in providing autonomy.
 
In numbers and probably market value, the report finds most substantially-autonomous vehicles will be pure electric in number, notably robot vacuum cleaners at the order of one million yearly. However, if we consider minimally autonomous vehicles, then, from 2015 - 2025, the largest numbers and market value will include cars at the order of one million yearly averaged through the decade.
 
The emphasis of the report is on lessons of success and failure and what comes next, with lead indicators of such success. Timelines to 2040 of market, technology and allied advances are given and detailed forecasts of sales of autonomous vehicles from 2015-2025 particularly concentrate on numbers, unit value and total market value.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • CES 2020: ITS does Vegas
    March 3, 2020
    Keen to find out what the future holds, 170,000 people gathered in Las Vegas for CES 2020 to see 20,000 product debuts and 4,400 exhibitors... and ITS International was there too (All images: CES®)
  • Changing driving conditions need ongoing driver training
    January 23, 2012
    Trevor Ellis, chairman of the ITS UK Enforcement Interest Group, considers the role of ongoing driver training in increasing compliance. It is over 30 years since I passed my driving test. The world was quite a different place then, in that there were only half the vehicles there are now on the UK's roads, mobile phones did not really exist and (in the UK at least) the vast majority of us drove cars which by today's standards exhibited dreadful dynamic stability and were woefully underpowered.
  • C-ITS in Europe: jazz or symphony?
    August 18, 2021
    Communication between vehicles on the road is going to be increasingly important. Richard Lax of Kapsch TrafficCom explains why music is a good guide to the way that this could work safely
  • European ITS Directive: From Minority Report to majority rapport
    December 1, 2023
    A 21-year old movie by Steven Spielberg appears to predict a C-ITS Day 3 use case. Richard Lax of Kapsch TrafficCom looks at the new European ITS Directive and idly wonders whether the great Hollywood movie director was once a European Commission intern in DG Move…