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

  • P3s offer new options for public transit agencies
    March 28, 2018
    David Crawford welcomes new US guidance on public-private partnerships in the public transit sector. Public-private partnerships (P3s) are becoming increasingly favoured as a means of cost-effectively delivering much-needed public transit projects across the US. Previously, researched examples have tended to be on the large-scale while information on the potential for smaller, more localised schemes has been comparatively sparse. In a bid to fill that gap, the ‘Public Transportation Guidebook for Small
    Read More
  • Emergency call forum: Where do we go from here?
    October 9, 2013
    The Ertico partnership is hosting a one-day forum in Brussels on 7 November to examine the future development of automated emergency call (eCall) and the evolution of telematics services. Discussions and debates will take place around a series of topics, including: the status of emergency call once eCall is deployed; challenges to enable further business opportunities; the potential of new technologies and new services within emergency call and beyond eCall.
    Read More
  • LA launches own ‘Green New Deal’
    August 15, 2019
    Los Angeles, once a temple to the automobile, has followed the Democrats in launching its own Green New Deal – and the city has made big pledges on urban mobility investment The Democratic Party has started something. The Green New Deal, one of whose most high-profile supporters is new congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, intends to persuade the public that swift action is necessary to combat climate change. Now the city of Los Angeles has followed suit, releasing what it calls ‘LA’s Green New Deal’.
    Read More
  • London conference looks to MaaS future
    March 16, 2017
    Transportation experts from across the globe converge on London for ITS International’s MaaS-Market Conference on 22 and 23 March. Reading international transport and technology experts will gather at a major conference in London next month to debate a revolutionary overhaul of their transport systems by developing Mobility as a Service – or MaaS – operations.
    Read More

Highlighted Content