Accenture sees nearly half of cars autonomous in 25 years

Accenture sees nearly half of cars autonomous in 25 years

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Global consulting firm Accenture has released a report looking at the potential benefits of autonomous vehicles in Australia and what connected industries may be affected by the advent of self-driving.

Accenture predicts that by the year 2040, four out of every 10 cars will be autonomous. And it won’t just be consumer cars that use autonomous technology, healthcare, manufacturing, mining, and transportation industries will all move towards an autonomous future.

The report provides a few case studies to show how autonomous vehicles are already influencing major industries. The first is Rio Tinto, a British-Australian mining company that uses driverless vehicles to move “millions of tonnes” of mining material in Pilbara, Australia.

The second is a partnership between local ridesharing service GoGet and the University of New South Wales, which are working together to build self-driving cars that are tuned to how Australian’s drive.

Accenture says investment needs to move

While these projects are exciting, Accenture wants to see more investment in self-driving cars, and provided six key findings on industries most likely to see innovation and success:

  • OEMs – Accenture sees a big role for automotive companies in the future, as cars transition from personal transport machines to services that can be shared with family, friends, and people in the city.
  • Mobile and technology suppliers – Technology companies are already playing a big part in the evolution of the self-driving car, with companies like Google, Uber, and Lyft at the forefront of autonomous vehicle testing in the United States. Opportunities for app development, big data, cloud, and IoT are rife, according to Accenture.
  • Energy providers – The ability for cars to make energy is a new idea. Accenture believes autonomous cars—which will supposedly complete thousands more miles a year than regular car—could go off the grid, create their own energy, and sell it back. While that sounds great for consumers and owners of automotives, it’s a future oil and energy providers might not want to see.
  • Financial services – Accenture makes note of a common theory that autonomous cars will not be purchased, but leased to customers for an extended amount of time. It also sees huge changes in the auto insurance industry, which is what Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett said a few weeks ago.
  • Government and public transportation services – Analysis of traffic data from autonomous cars may provide governments with smarter ways to organize traffic and redesign public transport, according to Accenture. It may also provide authorities with critical information the most congested areas of a city, giving them updates on potential disturbances and accidents.
  • Healthcare services – Accenture uses the same logic as it did with public transportation services to highlight the potential for emergency services to analyse where accidents are most likely to happen.

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