Automotive industry needs clearer roadmaps for self-driving cars

The White Paper – ‘The Technological Evolution of Autonomous Vehicles: Separating Hype from Reality’ – suggests that sceptical consumers have begun to tire of such inflated claims, and that the adoption of a more realistic tone supported by clearer technology roadmaps is required.

The White Paper, from B2B media agency Publitek, also highlights some of the specific technological, financial and societal barriers faced by the developers of autonomous vehicles.

“The autonomous driving sector is surrounded by a lot of hype, and this causes a disconnect between expectation and capability,” said Lee Hibbert, industry analyst at Publitek and the author of the White Paper. “The major players face a range of challenges as they seek to achieve their aims. That has led some critics to question whether Level 5 autonomy – where driverless systems can carry out all driving tasks, under all conditions that a human driver could perform – will ever be attained.

“It’s important that the industry does a more accurate job of charting its progress to avoid rising scepticism towards the technology.”

The White Paper attempts to give a readable and easily digestible assessment of the state-of-play in the autonomous driving sector, looking at some of the remaining technological challenges and plotting a realistic roadmap to a driverless future.