Connected Autonomous Vehicles – What’s the Benefit?

Powertrains are shifting from ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) to electric. Automation is taking over driver intuition. Mobility-as-a-Service is becoming commonplace. Newer vehicles are smarter and better.
The automotive circuit is witnessing a technological disruption, as connected autonomous vehicles are
slowly becoming a reality.

Cruising Towards a ‘Connected’ Future

Automakers are vying to explore the opportunities in the self-driving vehicle space. Though it’s the talk of the ‘auto’ town, a fully-autonomous vehicle (Level 5) is governed by traffic, pedestrian and weather conditions. Also, accident liability, regulations, data security and customer skepticism are the other challenges ahead. A connected vehicle is part of an ecosystem that’s powered by multiple stakeholders – manufacturers, regulators, technology providers, customers and more.    

Looking Under the Hood

A connected autonomous vehicle is powered by smart in-vehicle technology that enables vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-human, vehicle-to-cloud and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication. It also features several applications including Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Infotainment and Driver Information.
Radar sensors, high-powered cameras, rotating laser, GPS and multiple processors are just a few of the indispensable components used by these ‘computers’ on wheels.   

Benefits Will Beat the Barriers

More safety
Machines can take safer decisions in many scenarios. Lapses in driver attention will become a thing of the past when the CAV technology becomes mainstream. Upon adoption, vehicle crashes are expected to drop by 90%, saving billions of dollars. That’s because these incidents are ascribed to driver errors. 

Better energy efficiency
Self-driving vehicles will become lighter, smarter and more efficient. The optimized speeds will help reduce the number of hours at traffic signals. This will in turn cut CO2 emissions by 60%. Vehicle owners will also get to save on fuel costs, thanks to electrification and automation.

Improved comfort
Since the passenger enjoys the liberty sit back and relax while the vehicle does the driving, the experience
becomes all the more enjoyable. Also, the predictive assessment of travel times minimizes the time spent on the road. Busy commuters will fall for it!

Improved productivity
The self-driving vehicle offers the privilege of utilizing commute time better, and helps enhance employee productivity. As a result, work gets done faster, and the time spent at the actual workplace will be used for
other value-added tasks.

Reduced congestion
Drivers can bid adieu to parking woes, since their vehicles handle the task. They can also identify
the shortest distance between vehicles and park without human help, thereby optimizing the available
parking space.

New opportunities
As the technology is more complex, OEMs can expect higher after-sales revenue. Technology providers will
launch new products that support mobility, connectivity and telemetry. Newer business models will emerge,
and new jobs will be created across the domains of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Analytics,
Cloud Computing and Internet of Things.

A study predicts that by 2030, 15% of new cars will be fully autonomous. Nobody has seen the future, but the experiments, proofs of concept and trial runs indicate that the future of mobility will surely be a
lot more connected.