Autonomous Truck Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The autonomous truck market was valued t USD 240 Billion in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 850 Billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 23% during the Forecasts period (2022 - 2027)

The COVID-19 pandemic had a relatively smaller impact on this automotive industry segment compared to the whole. The demand for autonomous trucks was slightly hindered due to the lockdown and global transportation halt due to the pandemic. However, with market and trade gradually opening up, and the increased need for automation, the autonomous truck market is hoping for an economic revival.

Key Highlights

• Some of the major factors driving the growth of the market are the expansion of industrial sectors in the emerging market, growing demand from the logistics industry, rising demand from the construction sector (owing to growing construction activities). The market is expected to witness growth in the coming years due to growing economies across developing and developed counties.
• Although autonomous/driverless trucks have a great potential to replace the conventional trucks in terms of convenience-high cost of manufacturing, lack of proper infrastructures, inadequate regulations and policies of governments, and safety of commuters and pedestrians are some of the reasons that are acting as a hindrance in the growth. There have been 36 reported accidents involving autonomous vehicles.
• The rising demand for vehicle safety and stringent government rules are driving the ADAS market growth. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) makes it mandatory for all trucks with weiga ht range 8501 lb. to 10000 lb. to be equipped with Automatic Emergency Braking by September 1, 2022. United Kingdom has also set up a Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) that is working towards establishing laws and regulations to allow vehicle testing on highways and roads.

Key Market Trends

ADAS demand is on the rise

Rising awareness among customers is leading to growth in demand for vehicles with autonomous and advanced safety features. 90% of the customers who opt for any ADAS system in their vehicle, become repeat purchasers. Government norms and policies are also boosting the sales of the ADAS market. US and European authorities make installation of Automotive Emergency Braking (AEB) mandatory by 2022 and Forward Collision Avoidance/Warning System by 2020.

Currently, the complete ADAS systems are featured in expensive luxury segment vehicles only. Many truck OEMS are now collaborating with ADAS manufacturing companies to produce low cost ADAS systems. However, vehicles (commercial and passenger) register a minute average annual growth of 1% in their prices while ADAS systems are expensive due to their high manufacturing cost. OEMs may show reluctancy in increasing the prices of small and mid-sized vehicle segment and ADAS companies might not get the expected return. This factor might hinder the growth of ADAS market.

Suppliers of top OEMs have adopted the strategy of partnering with technology companies to develop ADAS. Tech companies such as Nvidia have entered this space for providing services to companies such as Volvo and Paccar. Amazon is using Embark’s self-driving trucks to deliver its cargo.

Passive safety (safety measures to prevent drivers from injuries during or after the crash) has seen a lot of innovations in the past decades and very little scope of improvement is left to make in the markets of developed geographies. Companies are now focusing on providing best passive safety in developing markets. Active Safety (to predict and avoid crashes) is in its initial stage and has a lot to offer. Any ADAS technology that gets early approval of majority of players will play a crucial role in development of fully autonomous vehicles in future.

North America is leading the autonomous truck market

Although adoption of Autonomous trucks is in the early stage of adoption across the globe in geographies such as Europe and Asia Pacific, North America is currently the largest market due to availability of infrastructure and major technology companies that are entering autonomous driving segment.

The rising electrification of vehicles due to infrastructure development by companies such as Tesla is also propelling the market in North America. Induction of x-by-wire technology in electric vehicles is helping in improvement of autonomous driving.

In Sep 2021, PACCAR has teamed up with Aurora, a leading autonomou driving technology company, to launch a commercial pilot of autonomous trucks in hauling operations in Washington. The technology is expected to be used by FedEx

In 2019, Daimler Trucks North America partnered with Torc Robotics and started testing autonomous trucks at Interstate 81 in Virginia. At CES 2020, Kenworth Truck Co. unveiled its autonomous truck technology based on T680 truck at. The autonomous truck makes use of sensors and LiDAR and collects up to 1 terabyte of data per hour during driving.

Competitive Landscape

The autonomous truck market is a strongly consolidated market dominated by players such as Daimler, Volvo, Tesla, etc. The main strategy adopted by players is the collaboration with technology companies to integrate services such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, advanced analytics, Internet of Things, Cloud technology, etc. in production and operation of autonomous trucks.

• In Sep 2021, Volvo Autonomous Solutions reveals a prototype long-haul autonomous truck for North America application

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
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