Do still autonomous vehicles envision a future-bid? It’s just not the leading automobile companies but tech companies also eyeing a driverless-future. In January 2019, Apple cut more than 200 employees from its self-driving car initiative, Project Titan, in what was internally described as a “restructuring.” Five months later, Apple confirmed that it had acquired Drive.ai, a self-driving startup that is backed by more than $77M in funding and was valued at $200M in 2017. In December 2020, Apple transitioned Project Titan to its AI and machine learning group led by John Giannadrea, according to Bloomberg.
In February 2020, self-driving software company Aptiv and ridesharing company Lyft reached a major milestone: the companies crossed 100,000 rides of its autonomous passenger service in Las Vegas. The company now services over 3,400 spots in Las Vegas, including popular locations such as the Los Angeles Convention Center and McCarren International Airport.
What importantly is needs to be discussed when can we have autonomous vehicles hitting the roads and see ‘Steering-holders’ takes a quick nap while reaching their respective destination.
Levels of autonomy
Reimagining movies showcasing driverless cars with complete autonomy is not what it looks like. Describing autonomy also has its stages. In GM’s 1939 exhibit, Norman Bel Geddes created the first self-driving car, which was an electric vehicle guided by radio-controlled electromagnetic fields generated with magnetized metal spikes embedded in the roadway. By 1958, General Motors had made this concept a reality.
- Level 1 automation some small steering or acceleration tasks are performed by the car without human intervention, but everything else is fully under human control
- Level 2 automation is like advance cruise control or original autopilot system on some Tesla vehicles, the car can automatically take safety actions but the driver needs to stay alert at the wheel
- Level 3 automation still requires a human driver, but the human is able to put some “safety-critical functions” to the vehicle, under certain traffic or environmental conditions. This poses some potential dangers as humans pass the major tasks of driving to or from the car itself, which is why some car companies (Ford included) are interested in jumping directly to level 4
- Level 4 automation is a car that can drive itself almost all the time without any human input, but might be programmed not to drive in unmapped areas or during severe weather. This is a car you could sleep in.
- Level 5 automation means full automation in all conditions
The big potential promise for people is either car that drive themselves for a large part of a person’s highway commute (level 3) or cars that can drive themselves almost as long as you live in a covered metropolitan area (level 4).
Key Drivers of Autonomous Vehicles Market
There has been an enormous deal of interest and enthusiasm among the motoring community over the past few years spurred by a surge of benefits touted by the manufacturers in the autonomous vehicles market. The following are the key trends that will drive the global autonomous vehicles market, sooner than later.
1) Real-time route optimization
Autonomous vehicles on a common stretch of the road are connected together with Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) mechanisms that enable driverless vehicles to gain real-time information on the condition of the roads as well as exchange protection and mobility information with the surrounding infrastructure and redirect the routes accordingly. Additionally, employing of V2V and V2I to find out optimal routes can aid in reducing the number of miles driven, save time and rein in the fuel consumption.
2) Increased lane capacity
Autonomous vehicles can operate at top speeds while trimming down the space between vehicles, leading to greater lane capacity. The latter can also increase with the embracing of adaptive cruise control. This technology adjusts the vehicle’s speed mechanically to ensure a safe distance between the vehicles on that stretch of the road. These technologies will shoot up the lane capacity and reduce accidents, ensuring greater passenger comfort and safety, thereby building the customers’ confidence in driverless technology.
3) Reduced energy consumption
Autonomous vehicles are less prone to accidents and are actually lighter than the conventional automobiles. Thanks to the lightweight composites used for building the modern vehicle, and the efficient manufacturing procedures, vehicles could become lighter while maintaining their overall size, yet remain impervious to accidents. Lightweight automobiles save on fuel consumption, further aided by such eco-friendly driving technologies and practices as cruise control, deceleration and smooth acceleration.
Why Semiconductor Companies are Finding Autonomy Prosperity
Semiconductors have enabled most of the recent innovations in automotive technology, including vision-based, enhanced graphics processing units (GPUs) and application processors, sensors, and DRAM and NAND flash. As cars become even more complex, demand for automotive semiconductors will continue lthough OEMs have introduced many new advanced-driver-assistance-systems features, such as automatic braking and adaptive cruise control, highly autonomous vehicles—in other words, level 4 cars—are not expected to hit the road until sometime between 2020 and 2025. They could then experience steady growth, with McKinsey’s most highly disruptive scenario for 2030 suggesting that 35 percent of cars sold will have conditional automation (level 3) and 15 percent will have high automation (level 4). The exact growth trajectory will depend on multiple factors, including improvements in core technologies, pricing, consumer acceptance of self-driving cars, and the ability of OEMs and suppliers to address fundamental concerns about safety and the potential for hacking.to rise steadily and provide a major new long-term growth engine.
The market outlook:
The global automotive semiconductor market was valued at USD 48.13 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach a value of USD 129.17 billion by 2026 and grow at a CAGR of 17.94% over the forecast period (2021-2026). With the increasing vehicle production across the globe, many vehicles are incorporating vehicle electrical systems that require power diodes and voltage regulators of exceptional reliability. The industry has also witnessed improvements in 3D mapping applications, EV batteries, and augmented-reality technologies, such as head-up displays. Moreover, 5G networks are enabling the next generation of mobility solutions in the sector. ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) sales are expected to flourish in the future owing to rising demand for safety features, designed to avoid collisions and accidents by offering technologies that alert the driver about potential problems according to Mordor Intelligence.
Connectivity, and later autonomous technology, will increasingly allow the car to become a platform for drivers and passengers to use their transit time for personal activities, which could include the use of novel forms of media and services. The increasing speed of innovation, especially in software-based systems, will require cars to be upgradable. As shared mobility solutions (i.e., car sharing or e-hailing) with shorter lifecycles will become more common, consumers will be constantly aware of technological advances, which will further increase demand for upgradability in privately used cars as well.
Given the structure of automobile sector and usage in India, autonomous vehicles still resembles in the garage for India. Though there are companies sharing their expertise in this segment and has already been offering solutions in the market. But a holistic win for driverless in India seems to project more job losses in India as majorly India accounts over 2.2 million commercial drivers across the country. Last year according to a report of KPMG, India ranked last in consumer acceptance, and stood just above Brazil in availability of infrastructure required to popularise driverless vehicles.
