Self-driving Car Market

Self-Driving Car Market Size, Share & Growth Analysis (2021 - 2026)

The global self-driving car market was estimated at $ 24.10 billion in 2021 and is expected to project at an annual growth rate of 18.06% over the forecast period of 2022 - 2027.

An autonomous car, also known as a self-driving car or driverless car, is a vehicle that uses a combination of sensors, cameras, radars, and artificial intelligence (AI) to travel between destinations without the need for any human efforts. To be considered as fully autonomous, a vehicle must be able to navigate, without human intervention, to a predetermined destination, on roads that have not been adapted for use.

Self-driving cars use technologies such as RADAR, LIDAR, GPS, and computer vision to detect their surroundings. Advanced control systems that are built into the car can interpret sensory inputs to detect signs or prevent a collision. Fully autonomous vehicles will not reach a broad customer base unless they are safe from online attacks. If such issues are addressed, the self-driving car market is estimated to reach $ 60 billion by 2030.

Recent developments:

• Ford invested $ 1 billion in an AI startup Argo AI. Former leaders of Google and Uber created this robotics company. Ford's initial idea was to use these vehicles for a transportation service, similar to GM.

• In 2019, Ford's Argo AI invested $ 15 million in creating an Autonomous Vehicle Research Center at Carnegie Mellon University, recognized by its machine learning department. In the next few years, the Autonomous Vehicle Research Center will focus on improving autonomous driving technology, including more refined sensors and more robust algorithms. The Center is chaired by Deva Ramanan, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University and chief scientist at Argo AI.

• In October 2018, Mando Corporation, one of the renowned Tier 1 original equipment manufacturers in Korea, obtained an autonomous vehicle driving test license in California, United States. It is also one of the first OEM companies in Korea to receive the permit. The company aims to develop platforms for fully autonomous vehicles with level four autonomy. It also intends to put its standalone driving car safety gear on effectively for years to come.

• General Motors (GM) and Cruise confirmed that they shook hands with Honda in October 2018, to seek the large-scale deployment of autonomous vehicle technology. Honda can contribute approximately $ 2 billion over 12 years to develop an autonomous vehicle specially designed for Cruise. Apart from the recent Softbank investments, this transaction proposes Cruise's after-money valuation to $ 14.6 billion.

Market growth and trends:

Demand for safe and efficient travel options -

Connectivity is the fastest-growing feature that is being embraced by the automotive market today. It is expected to generate approximately $ 1 trillion by the end of 2030. A connected car provides a driver, several smart options and benefits, along with internet access. These benefits include safety alerts, automatic crash notifications and improved engine controls.

This is possible due to the Internet of Things (IoT), which refers to the connectivity of several devices on the Internet.

Driverless cars use this connectivity when updating their algorithms based on user data. These autonomous vehicles require a massive amount of data collection and processing. Thus, via IoT, the driverless car shares information on the road. Information includes the actual route, traffic and navigation methods around any obstacle. All data is shared between vehicles connected to the IoT and wirelessly uploaded to a cloud system for analysis and use to improve automation.

Semi-autonomous vehicles dominate the market -

In accordance with international standards for automated driving SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers), cars with level 1 to level 3 automation functions have been taken into account in the semi-autonomous car market segment.

• Level 1 automation (also known as driver assistance) has been available in cars for several years, managing driving modes like steering or accelerator and brake, but never both. Some of the characteristics of level 1 vehicles are the parking aid, the adaptive cruise control and the lane-keeping aid.
• Level 2 automation (also known as partial assistance) includes a suite of driver assistance technologies, including speed-sensitive cruise control and automatic lane change, enabling automatic steering on undivided but limited speed roads
• Level 3 automation is called conditional automation. In level 3 automation, the autonomous driving system performs all dynamic driving tasks expecting the human driver to respond appropriately to a service request.

Market Drivers and Restraints:

The increasing acceptance of autonomous vehicles by various governments should stimulate the growth of industrial applications for self-driving cars during the forecast period. Technological advances, the growing number of traffic accidents and the rising demand for automation are the key factors in the growth of the global self-driving car market.

Although the market for autonomous cars is supposed to grow positively globally, the apprehension regarding the risk of confidentiality and security and the lack of adequate infrastructure necessary to support autonomous cars can pose several challenges to manufacturers. There may be security threats to the robust networks that will connect to autonomous vehicles.

Market segmentation:

The global market for autonomous cars is segmented by vehicle type, automation type, components and geography. 

By vehicle type, the global self-driving car market is classified as a passenger car and commercial vehicle. Among these, the passenger car segment holds the prominent share that is likely to continue in the coming years.

By type of automation, the global market is separated as Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, Tier 4 and Tier 5. Although Tier 4 and Tier 5 autonomous cars are unlikely to reach full acceptance, by 2030, there will be rapid growth for Tier 2 and Tier 3 autonomous cars, which have advanced assistance systems to the driver, such as collision detection, lane departure warning and adaptive cruise control. 

The component segment includes hardware and software, which further comprises radar, video cameras, LIDAR, ultrasound, central navigation and GPS. 

Regional Analysis:

Geographically, the global self-driving car market is segmented in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

North America and Europe covered more than half of the global semi-driving car market in 2018 and are expected to continue increasing their market share over the forecast period due to the rise in the launch of semi-autonomous car models and further development towards such vehicles. 

Key market players:

The main suppliers of self-driving cars operating in the market are divided according to technology suppliers (Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Cisco) and actors in the automotive industry (Google, Toyota, General Motors, Tesla, Volvo).