Skip to main content

The future car will be a robot-driven giant computer, says report

A newly published Frost & Sullivan video report, The Future of Mobility summarises the key factors which impact the way people will move from door to door in the future and which will add a new dimension to the mobility behaviour of human beings. The video report highlights trends impacting mobility, presents future mobility solutions like car sharing, and mobility apps, providing door to door one stop shop journeys, and discusses and compares what organisations within the mobility eco-system are doing to e
October 14, 2013 Read time: 3 mins
A newly published Frost & Sullivan video report, The Future of Mobility summarises the key factors which impact the way people will move from door to door in the future and which will add a new dimension to the mobility behaviour of human beings. The video report highlights trends impacting mobility, presents future mobility solutions like car sharing, and mobility apps, providing door to door one stop shop journeys, and discusses and compares what organisations within the mobility eco-system are doing to embrace this change. The report also looks at latest developments in artificial intelligence, human augmentation, robotics, digitalisation and connectivity and how this will transform the mobility eco-system.

“Frost & Sullivan analysis discovered that every new car will be ‘connected’ by 2014, either via an embedded or tethered platform, making cars the third most connected “devices” behind mobile phones and tablet computers,” forecasts Frost & Sullivan senior partner and Global Practice Director Automotive and Transportation, Sarwant Singh. “A life changing impact of connectivity will be the driverless car, and no one other than Google is leading it. Google has pushed the car industry to develop autonomous driving and at the heart of its business model of driverless cars, is that cars are not owned anymore but shared. We expect very soon a company like Google or a car company to test run trials of twenty to thirty fully driverless cars in a shared business model within a small community to test the concept and prove to the world, that this technology is closer than we believe.”

The focus for car manufacturers therefore will have to be on finding ways to differentiate themselves. More and more drivers turn away from car ownership and become members of car sharing organisations, expecting the rented vehicle to be connected, fully equipped with latest safety and infotainment systems and driving on electricity.

“In order to stay competitive car companies have to provide value added services such as multi-modal journey planning, car sharing and services that make mobility much easier,” advices Mobility Programme Manager, Martyn Briggs from Frost & Sullivan.

This future mobility scenario leaves room for many similar ideas and is further influencing core transportation providers to consider new propositions to exploit the opportunities that mobility can bring.

Furthermore, the expansion of the list of stakeholders to include various technology or payment providers, and emerging third parties such as travel management companies and technology providers is leading to increased levels of collaboration and industry convergence beyond the traditional boundaries of transportation modes, with companies increasingly offering products and services outside of their core competencies, either directly or in partnership.

“We can expect more innovations in urban mobility in the future than in the car itself, and most innovations will be software and digitally driven” concludes Singh. “Mobility will be a key pillar in all car companies’ product line. The space however, will be a lot more congested and contested as it will open new lines of competition from the wider mobility eco-system.”

Related Content

  • Manchester seeks smart but not selective transport solutions
    January 25, 2018
    Smarter transport relies on better communications both with travellers and between transport providers. Andrew Williams reports. Inrix’s prediction that the cost of traffic congestion will rise by 63% to £21bn per year by 2030 clearly illustrates that, in addition to the ongoing inconvenience and inefficiency, ongoing gridlock is a significant drain on the economy. It is against this backdrop that a Cisco-led consortium has launched CitySpire, a smart transport programme that uses location-based services a
  • Sorting sensible from shiny in tolling technology
    December 11, 2014
    Instead of always striving for the latest shiny toys Kevin Hoeflich of HNTB advises a 10-steps method for selecting the most appropriate technology. Amid the hype and razzmatazz surrounding the launch of Apple’s iPhone 6, the company also announced its new mobile payment system, Apple Pay. Built into the new iPhone 6, Apple Pay works at 220,000 merchants across America and is supported by major US banks and the big three credit card companies.
  • EU offers vision of mobility
    March 26, 2021
    Major changes are in the air for ITS in Europe: José Diez of ERF considers what the European Commission’s newly-released policy strategy for sustainable and smart mobility will mean
  • An innovation lab – not a burden
    June 27, 2018
    Travellers want to be able to book multimodal journeys easily – and to be informed of problems and alternatives as they go. Adam Roark might just be able to help, finds Ben Spencer. The global shift in transportation towards members of the public wanting access to multimodal journeys is rapidly changing how people pay and plan ahead. Buying tickets from a machine and dealing with the frustration of discovering your train is cancelled is a scenario commuters want to avoid through technology’s ability to