Kia commissions autonomous concerns

To celebrate its 25th anniversary in the UK, Kia Motors (UK) Ltd has revealed findings from its report looking at the predicted motoring industry over the next 25 years.

The report suggests fully autonomous cars will account for half of all car sales in 25 years, with increasing degrees of autonomy ranging from cruise control to partial self-drive automation adding to traditional vehicles and over eight million connected cars on UK roads able to communicate with each other and the surrounding infrastructure.

Whilst autonomous cars rise in popularity, there will be a huge overhaul of the infrastructure designed to accommodate a mixture of autonomous cars, connected cars and traditional vehicles. In 25 years autonomous cars will have their own lanes on motorways and will, under certain conditions, be able to ‘communicate’ with the road to identify obstacles, travel delays and even potholes.

The report, which was commissioned in conjunction with Dr Frank Shaw of the Centre for Future Studies, reveals some of the benefits of autonomous vehicles. With level four autonomy (cars that are completely self-driving with no need for human input at all) insurance premiums for road traffic accidents are likely to be almost obsolete with cars able to avoid collisions through communication with each other.

Dr Frank Shaw, who has been described by Time Magazine as one of the 10 most influential thinkers in the world, commented, ‘The future of the car industry is an exciting one, as there will be a transformation from an industry built by mechanics to one that is largely driven by software developers. There is considerable speculation in 2016 about autonomous driving, the full impacts of which will not become manifest until the 2040s. I am confident however that over the next twenty five years, the industry and technology companies will deliver a safer, more efficient and environmentally friendly driving experience for everyone.’

‘Technology in the motoring industry is moving at an incredibly fast pace, and this report is a fascinating look at how the world around our cars will need to adapt in order to keep up,’ said Paul Philpott, Kia Motors UK President and CEO.