The future for self-driving technology in cars seems bright as a latest study predicts that the autonomous cars will grow significantly and finally dominate the private and commercial cars market by 2050.
Autonomous cars will soon be changing the trend of automobiles in the coming decades. It might be slow in picking up pace, but IHS analyst Egil Juliussen predicts a significant growth of autonomous cars by 2050. Information Handling Services (IHS) has conducted a study on autonomous cars, which do not need any assistance by the driver.
According to the study findings, there will be 54 million autonomous cars on the roadways by 2035. The market for self-driving technology in cars will be mainly in North America, China and Western Europe, with North America accounting for 29 percent of the market share. China will follow with 24 percent and then Western Europe with 20 percent. The technology, which is currently under a long test phase, will not hit the car market until 2020 or 2025.
The integration of the self-driving technology in cars will also increase the purchase price of luxury vehicles by $7,000 to $10,000. Once the technology is adapted in general cars, the premium will drop to around $1,000 for entry-level cars by 2030, according to IHS. The effective pricing will help push more cars in turn, boosting the annual sales and the number of vehicles with autonomous driving technology on roadways.
IHS predicts nearly all private and commercial vehicles will be using self-driving technology by 2050 and this will encourage road safety.
"Accident rates will plunge to near zero for SDCs, although other cars will crash into SDCs, but as the market share of SDCs on the highway grows, overall accident rates will decline steadily," Juliussen said in a press release, Thursday. "Traffic congestion and air pollution per car should also decline because SDCs can be programmed to be more efficient in their driving patterns."
Before the technology is widely accepted by car makers, IHS notes some potential barriers that will get into the way of SDC development. Software reliability and cyber security will be the two most important factors that will potentially pose a threat to SDCs.
Michigan recently gave a green light to the testing of self-driving cars on roads, making it the fourth U.S. state after California, Nevada and Florida.
