A new report from ABI Research forecasts that by the year 2030, 69.3% of all new passenger vehicle sales will include some level of driving automation, specifically SAE levels 2 and above.
According to ABI Research's latest whitepaper, "A Scalable Approach to ADAS and Autonomous Driving," the industry is at the cusp of a revolution, with advancements in artificial intelligence, computing power and mapping technologies driving the change. These technologies could take over various driving tasks, offering a spectrum of applications from active safety systems to fully autonomous vehicles.
"Different autonomous applications vary in features and the level of driver involvement," said James Hodgson, smart mobility and automotive research director at ABI Research. "Some demand constant supervision, while others permit manual, visual or cognitive disengagement. Active safety systems offer limited support, keeping the driver fully in control.
"In contrast, driverless vehicles eliminate the need for human operators by handling all driving tasks autonomously," Hodgson continued. "Therefore, the automotive industry should adopt a scalable approach to their active safety, semi-autonomous and fully driverless applications. Maximizing the re-use of components between different feature/disengagement combinations will yield many benefits to the market."
The whitepaper delves into the technological underpinnings necessary for this transition, including 360-degree perception, high-performance computing and redundancy in perception, processing and software. It also highlights the critical role of safety rating agencies in promoting the adoption of active safety features and ensuring the safety of these advanced systems.
"Overall, the only feasible approach to delivering on feature-rich and unsupervised automation is to construct today's supervised autonomous applications on an architecture that has the potential to scale by adding technologies that will replace the supervisory role that human drivers play today," Hodgson concluded.
ABI Research's whitepaper, "A Scalable Approach to ADAS and Autonomous Driving," is available for download, offering a comprehensive analysis of the transition towards autonomous driving and its implications for the future of transportation.