Skip to main content

World Economic Forum: AVs face two big challenges

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) will not be widely adopted unless tech issues and business cases are sorted out, says an expert at the World Economic Forum (WEF). In an interview with CNBC, Michelle Avary, head of autonomous mobility at the organisation, said: “Really making sure that the technology is working in the areas of perception, which is vision — being able to identify objects and then understand how to move around them. That has yet to be solved.” Speaking at the WEF’s Annual Meeting of the New Ch
July 3, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) will not be widely adopted unless tech issues and business cases are sorted out, says an expert at the World Economic Forum (WEF).


In an interview with %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external CNBC false https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/01/autonomous-vehicles-face-two-challenges-technology-and-business-model.html false false%>, Michelle Avary, head of autonomous mobility at the organisation, said: “Really making sure that the technology is working in the areas of perception, which is vision — being able to identify objects and then understand how to move around them. That has yet to be solved.”

Speaking at the WEF’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions – a three-day summit on innovation and entrepreneurship – in Dalian, China, she also emphasised that the automotive industry needs to find ways of making money with AVs.

“We see some big divergence between the whole idea of the business model of the robo-taxi versus what we see in areas like commercial trucking, mining and construction, where the business model case might be more readily made.”

According to Avary, driverless trucks moving goods on highways would be more lucrative than robo-taxis, which offer a transportation service to people.

“Even in mining and construction equipment, where we see a lot of advances in solid business case models being made in things like digging trenches for laying oil pipelines,” she continues. “There’s a lot of lucrative opportunities for automated technologies to play in these sectors.”

Avary also believes there are likely to be more mergers and acquisitions as well as partnerships between automakers and technology companies.

“The two sides need each other, and the market is enormous, so, I think there’s a lot of opportunities for everyone to come out as winners,” she adds.

Related Content

  • Dyson scraps EV project
    October 16, 2019
    British technology company Dyson has pulled out of a project to build electric vehicles (EVs), saying it is unable to make its car “commercially viable”. Chief executive Sir James Dyson said in a statement: “We have been through a serious process to find a buyer for the project which has, unfortunately, been unsuccessful so far.” The company, known primarily for its vacuum cleaners, says it will continue its £2.5 billion investment programme into new technology in two UK locations and in Singapore. It wil
  • Maven expands peer-to-peer car-share service
    October 30, 2018
    General Motors’ subsidiary Maven is expanding its peer-to-peer car-share option to more US cities. The service – which sees owners renting out their vehicles - is currently available in four urban areas: Ann Arbor, Chicago, Denver and Detroit. But GM says it will now be rolled out in Baltimore, Boston, Jersey City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, DC by the end of the year. Owners can rent out their GM car, so long as it is registered in 2015 or later, with Maven taking 40% of each rental. Despi
  • ITS Asia Pacific Forum 2020: early bird registrations
    October 3, 2019
    Early bird registrations are open for the 17th ITS Asia Pacific Forum 2020 with the opportunity of saving up to $AUS200 (£109). ITS Australia says the forum, whose theme is ‘ITS Innovation Creating Liveable Communities’, “will demonstrate Australia’s new initiatives and adapted learnings from the advances of our neighbouring megacities”. Key topics will include Mobility as a Service, autonomous vehicles, data analytics and network development. The event will take place at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibit
  • Worries as Huawei given role in UK’s 5G network
    April 24, 2019
    Alarm has been expressed by MPs over the UK government’s decision to allow Chinese firm Huawei to work on the UK’s 5G network. Prime minister Theresa May has banned Huawei from supplying ‘core’ parts of the country’s 5G infrastructure – but is believed to have given the green light for it to help deliver what are being called ‘non-core’ parts. As well as being for mobile phones, 5G is the technology which will be used to improve connectivity of autonomous vehicles and traffic controls. However, there ar