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Self-driving cars are in our midst, and the key issues are control and security

Self-driving cars are in our midst, and the key issues are control and security

The industry needs to address these concerns now, in the early stages of driverless car development

We live in a time of constant, disruptive change, and technology is at the core of that disruption. Entire industries have been and are on track to be disrupted. None is more fascinating to watch than the automotive industry.

America has long been in love with its automobiles, and in every growing economy one early mark of a success has been the growth in automobile ownership. But the car has become much more than a symbol of success, it has come to represent our very independence, which touches upon not only the ability to be mobile – to get to work, to take vacations – but it also represents freedom, and therefore is a deeply emotional tool for many of us.

The coming transformation of the automotive industry will be the rise of autonomous, driverless cars. As we move from “dumb” to “smart cars,” giving up control of our vehicles will be the most disruptive change in the auto industry since Henry Ford introduced the production line.

In the early stages of any disruption there is a lot of confusion. Contradicting predictions are made by industry insiders, while consumers and investors try to get a handle on what’s coming. Every segment of the industry is ripe for disruption and investors in particular need to understand where the greatest opportunities lie.

Opportunity: Mobility as a Service (MaaS)

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is the industry term for aggregated, on-demand, multimodal transportation. Uber and Lyft are the companies that come to mind. What seemed like instantaneously, they disrupted the taxi industry and transformed travel for individuals. It was suddenly easier to get from point A to B without owning a car or waiting in inclement weather for a taxi to arrive. With the rise of Uber, technology gave us a different kind of freedom.

To understand where MaaS is going, we need to look at not only where, but how much money is being spent. ABI Research forecasts global MaaS revenues will exceed $1 trillion by 2030. They also predict disruption of car ownership and public transportation, including trains, planes, taxis, and rental cars. The entire transportation industry is at stake, and it will impact industry as well as labor.

Autonomous vehicles mean that jobs currently performed by drivers, engineers, and even pilots, could be eliminated. A ripple effect will be the disruption of the insurance and maintenance sectors of the automotive industry. ABI Research predicts that Over the Air based self servicing and preventative maintenance will divert a huge amount of money now flowing into maintenance, cutting jobs and the cost of car ownership.

As more electric vehicles are used, fossil fuels will be replaced by electric recharging capabilities. MaaS will create a dynamic transportation sector full of opportunities for the public and private sector. The critical question is, who will the players be? Can they disrupt the traditional mega corporations that have long owned the auto manufacturing and transportation industries?

Also watch: In video, driverless cars and how technology challenges our morality

Opportunity: Augmented Reality

The tech world has talked a lot about the failing of augmented reality when it comes to wearables and mobile devices. Think of virtual headsets and Google Glass. AR developers may have been looking in the wrong place all along. The car was always the most obvious place for AR to give consumers something they really want, especially in self driving cars.

Cars already have enough transparent surface to become a hardware platform for AR in the windshield, and the rise of driverless cars will create more demand. AR is not only perfect for navigation systems, but consider entertainment and advertising scope when the driver does not need to give their attention to the road. Geolocation services will open up possibilities for time and travel conscious advertising. Gaming and entertainment can become a normal part of travel.

AR will meld entertainment, navigation, and other applications. Last year BMW introduced its Vision Next 100 concept to celebrate its first 100 years. The windshield is an AR display, and the dash is embedded with 800 triangles that communicate with the driver. The vehicle can help the driver operate in a safer and more efficient way, and it can transform the seating when in autonomous mode. As much as consumers may love their existing, human driven cars, one must believe that this sort of technology will be too attractive to exist.

The Critical Question: Are Consumers Ready to Give Up Their Cars?

The question of whether Americans give up their cars, or control of them, may not be as important as some stateside would like to believe. Perhaps a more important question is: How receptive is the Chinese market to autonomous vehicles? In 2016 over 28 million vehicles were sold in China, and early in the year Baidu’s CEO, Robin Li, announced the company’s plans to spin off their self driving car project into a stand alone business. The company is aiming to bring on investors and developers, and bring a fully autonomous car to market in China by next year.

The opportunity is great in China’s densely populated cities where people who can’t afford to own a vehicle would benefit from MaaS.

Globally, consumers may not be ready for some changes. A study by MIT surveyed 3,000 people about their appetite for autonomous vehicles. 48 percent said they would never purchase a purely self driving car. Respondents were most concerned with safety and a lack of trust of technology. One cannot help but think of Tim Cook’s famous statement:

Apple has made products for years that people didn’t know they wanted and now they can’t live without. We don’t believe in limits.

Car manufacturers are thinking along the same lines, easing consumers into autonomous vehicles by introducing some capabilities, one “level” at a time. Buyers are receptive to a certain level of autonomy, including automatic forward collision braking, automatic parking, and lane keep assistance. As in many disruptive changes, the market is ahead of the consumer, but it is a race to be ready when the buyer is totally on board.

Also read: Keeping control of the wheel: Is semi-automation the best way to introduce driverless cars?

During the transition period manufactures will continue to coax people to trust driverless cars. Since the area of greatest concern for buyers is security, the opportunity to create software security for autonomous vehicles great.

Opportunity: Software Security Systems

Manufacturers are ahead of their customers when it comes to autonomous vehicles, and the quickest way to induce consumers to embrace them is to make them feel more secure. Speak to any consumer with even a slight interest in autonomous cars and they are likely to bring up the case of hackers taking control of a Jeep and causing it to crash. Security experts will tell you that autonomous vehicles are more difficult to hack because, unlike the 2015 Jeep, they rely on many sensors to feed them information and help their artificial intelligence make decisions.

There are not only more sensors on autonomous vehicles, but different kinds of sensors. There are lidar sensors, radar sensors, and of course cameras. Each sensor solves a different problem, but also helps make the vehicle more secure. This will help ease consumer worry, but it is not the only threat to autonomous vehicle security. Ransomware has yet to be used to target a manufacturer, but the idea of a hacker threatening to shut down, or worse, to an entire fleet of autonomous vehicles is a deep concern.

Another recently exposed security risk are malicious physical attacks that confuse the cameras of self driving cars. For instances, an individual can put stickers on a stop sign in a manner to cause the self driving vehicle to see a Stop sign as a 45 mph sign. There are methods to counter against such attacks, such as using information from multiple sensors, allowing the car to assess the information it is being given.

Consumers, already afraid of losing control, hear bits and pieces of this story and their insecurity about autonomous vehicles rises. The industry needs to address these concerns now, in the early stages of driverless car development.

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