Uber, for some time, has been bent on developing autonomous cars to use them as a fleet of driverless taxis. Lately,Tesla Motors has announced a bold plan to operate its self-driving cars as an Uber-like fleet later on.
Meantime, Apple is gearing up its self-driving car project by hiring a former Blackberry executive who was the head of automotive software division, and plans to launch its autonomous cars by 2020.
In China, Alibaba moves ahead with a blueprint for self-driving cars. Faraday Future, a US-based Chinese-backed electric vehicle maker, is posing as a big rival to Tesla Motors, and also has a self-driving electric car in its investment portfolio.
Wait a minute. The rise of the sharing economy may tend to leave no stones unturned, and you may find it in every nook and cranny. But one big question looms large. Will consumers try to share everything they own, most of the things they own, or the select least of things they own?
You've got a top-of-the line McLaren or Bentley, and it is out of the question that you are willing to share it with others to save a few pennies.
It will be three decades until autonomous cars will hit a critical mass, according to some analysts. I am somewhat inclined to say it will take at least over a decade until a full deployment of self-driving cars is achieved. The self-driving cars appear to be a top agenda item for automotive OEMs and high-tech giants, but the power struggle between automakers and technological giants will continue for a while.
Google and Apple are most unlikely to start manufacturing self-driving cars any time soon, but seem to be more interested in becoming a market leader in the evolving operating platforms of connected cars. The ongoing evolution of the "connected car platforms" will show some fragmentation until a dominant platform takes its root into the ecosystem of the connected cars, of which self-driving cars form a subsector. Not to change the subject, do you think self-driving cars will become Unber-like taxis sooner or later? If the full deployment of autonomous cars is not going to happen in the near future, then a niche market for self-driving cars should come into being as soon as possible.
In other words, connected cars evolve into either smartphone-based Telematics 2.0 or in-vehicle operating platforms.
Wait a minute. The rise of the sharing economy may tend to leave no stones unturned, and you may find it in every nook and cranny. But one big question looms large. Will consumers try to share everything they own, most of the things they own, or the select least of things they own?
You've got a top-of-the line McLaren or Bentley, and it is out of the question that you are willing to share it with others to save a few pennies.
It will be three decades until autonomous cars will hit a critical mass, according to some analysts. I am somewhat inclined to say it will take at least over a decade until a full deployment of self-driving cars is achieved. The self-driving cars appear to be a top agenda item for automotive OEMs and high-tech giants, but the power struggle between automakers and technological giants will continue for a while.
Google and Apple are most unlikely to start manufacturing self-driving cars any time soon, but seem to be more interested in becoming a market leader in the evolving operating platforms of connected cars. The ongoing evolution of the "connected car platforms" will show some fragmentation until a dominant platform takes its root into the ecosystem of the connected cars, of which self-driving cars form a subsector. Not to change the subject, do you think self-driving cars will become Unber-like taxis sooner or later? If the full deployment of autonomous cars is not going to happen in the near future, then a niche market for self-driving cars should come into being as soon as possible.
In other words, connected cars evolve into either smartphone-based Telematics 2.0 or in-vehicle operating platforms.
