Introduction: Roads Ahead by MIT
New research from MIT “Autonomous Vehicles, Mobility, and Employment Policy: The Roads Ahead,” has indicated that visions of automation in mobility will not be fully realized in the next few years, rather it will take more than a decade. The transition will also not occur suddenly or in isolation. Initially, fully automated driving will be restricted to limited geographic regions and climates. Moreover, automation in cars will emerge within a web of relationships with electrification, connected vehicles, and evolving service models across vehicle types.
Here are some of the key findings from the report:
- Widespread deployment of fully automated driving systems with no safety driver onboard will take at least a decade.
- Winter climates and rural areas will experience longer transitions.
- Expansion will likely be gradual and will happen region-by-region in specific categories of transportation, resulting in wide variations in availability across the country.
- AV should be thought of as one element in a mobility mix, and as a potential feeder for public transit rather than a replacement for it.
In the race to launch fully autonomous vehicles on the road there are:
- Leaders;
- Contenders;
- Challengers; and
- Those companies I call “bubbling under”.
I’m going to curate the latest developments in 2020 from each category here.
