The worldwide number of car accidents is constantly growing. Approximately 1.35 million drivers, motorcyclists, and pedestrians pass away every year because of 

road accidents. High-risk factors are mostly accredited to human behaviors such as speeding, distracted driving, driving under the influence, fatigue or similar reasons. In countries like the UK, human failures account for 95% of all road accidents.

In 2017, 3,166 people were killed in the US due to the use of smartphones or eating while driving.

Driving will become relaxing as never before

Autonomous mobility is becoming more and more advanced, not just in terms of accident prevention, but also in terms of driving comfort. The prototypes and vehicles featured have shown that the driving will no longer be in the hands of humans but those of Artificial Intelligence, leaving any passengers time to relax, be entertained and even work. The Mercedes-Benz F015, for example, will be more like a fancy hotel lobby than a car. Front row chairs will be rotatable but still allow you to switch into the driving mode with easy access to the steering wheel. High-end technologies such as laser beams, radar, and high power cameras will also be implemented in the future vehicle, no matter if autonomous or not. Finally, more important than for the functional aspect, Human Machine Interface (HMI) will become more and more relevant for the emotional experience.

New technologies to increase trust in self-driving cars

Augmented Reality Head-Up displays, for example, which are projecting important notifications like navigation directions or a visual mark for other road users in front of the vehicle onto the windshield, are gaining trust in autonomous mobility. Therefore, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are indispensable to prepare the automotive market for the development of autonomous driving vehicles. Several new technologies have already been introduced to the automotive sector, pushing forward AI and machine learning in cars. The Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) paves the way for vehicles to communicate with roadside infrastructures, which are representing every road user or object that may affect the car. It is distinguished between direct and network communications. The direct communication with other vehicles (V2V), on-road infrastructure (V2I) and other road users like pedestrians (V2P) or devices (V2D) is operating in 5.9 GHz frequency band. While network communication (V2N), which gives information on road conditions and traffic, is compatible with 4G and 5G cellular networks to provide assistance for all safety features or commercial services to enable access to cloud-based data or information to cooperate, coordinate and share all information with other vehicles.

Tons of data required for autonomous mobility

These new technologies are associated with a ton of data. To enable the continuous exchange of data with in-vehicle electronic devices, enormous data centers are necessary. According to predictions, self-driving cars will generate around 100 petabytes of data every month. One of the first prototypes of the Google car is yet alone producing almost 1 gigabyte of data per second. More tangibly, 270 million Twitter users create 100 GB per day, while a single autonomous vehicle creates 30 TB in the same time, which is 3,000 times more than Twitter.

The remaining question for automakers is data ownership: does it belong to the manufacturer, the software developer or the vehicle owner? Automotive data monetization is becoming a real opportunity for the industry representing already a $1 billion business today, against $28 billion by 2035. On another end, the growing demand for autonomous vehicles will reach the mark of $150 billion annual revenue by 2025 which implies that approximately 100 million autonomous vehicles will hit the roads by then.

Expertise in the handling of data and technologies for faster time to market

To remain competitive in this ever-growing and changing industry full of quick innovations and demand for cost efficiency, the key to success is to choose the right Contract Manufacturer. At Asteelflash, we offer world-class quality, on-time delivery, and cost-efficiency so you can focus on innovation to create the best product for your customers. Full-turnkey services from design, IoT connectivity, and prototyping to mass production, is part of Asteelflash DNA. With extensive expertise in the automotive industry we help you build the products of tomorrow.