The global market of Electric vehicles is estimated to grow by US$567 billion by the year 2026, with a CAGR of around 15.6%.

The COVID 19 Pandemic has rendered the operations of almost every industry to stall. But even before the pandemic ravaged the economy, shutdown plants and warehouses, and temporarily shunted the factories, the automobile industry was grappling to survive globally. A report by Capgemini Research Institute states that in 2019, the markets observed a drop to 90 millions in the sales of the automobiles vehicles globally, which was significantly smaller to the 95 million automobiles sold in 2017.

The reports also states that the sales in China declined by 42% in the Q1 of the year 2020, and the large automakers in the USA have reported decline in sales from 37% to 50%.

Despite this, an optimism can be observed amongst automakers while integrating artificial Intelligence in the automobile industry.

Leveraging AI with Automobiles

If we have to look back at history, we will observe that automobile was the very first sector which was integrated with technology. Be it the innovation of the first power windows in 1940, which utilized technology to crank up windows up and down without any human intervention, or installing Car Phones in 1988, for enhanced customer experience, the technology directly and indirectly added value to the automobile sector.

With the advent of artificial intelligence, automobile companies are trying out solutions, so that more innovation can be done in the automobile sector. The automakers are more interested in delivering automation in the automobiles. Since automating cars, also demands increased safety of the passengers, the automobile companies are looking forward in integrating the automobiles with Level 5 .i.e, Full Driving Automation. The Level 5 automating cars eliminates the requirement of human attention, steering wheels, or acceleration braking pedals. It will be free of Geofencing and perform the task like that of experienced human drivers.

A report “Securing The Connected Car:  A study of Automative Industry Cybersecurity Practices States that” these connected vehicles have highly equipped physical attributes of the car such as seatbelts, airbags, antilock brakes.

The Level 5 automation of automobiles is under trial, while the  automobile makers are hopeful for integrating it.

Existing AI capabilities In Cars

Like mentioned earlier, the automobile sector was the first which utilized technology. As compared to the times, when automobile sector relented to manual operations, automation Level 3 and 4, are already deployed by automobile companies, which are aesthetically presentable and feasible to the consumers. The only difference between automation level 3 and 4, as compared to 5 is that the cars with Level 3 and Level 4 still require human intervention to some extent. A report by the Capegimini Research Institute states that 34% organizations in the automotive sector has started deploying AI globally.

The Level 3 and Level 4 cars have environmental detection capabilities in the form of sensors, which can take informed decisions such as accelerating past a slow moving vehicle with human intervention, They utilize the Traffic Jam Pilot for identifying the traffic in an area, or deploying virtual reality in the form of Tablets inside the car.

Many leading car companies like Audi, BMW, and Mercedes, are playing big while utilizing technology. For example, Volvo and Baidu have announced a strategic partnership for developing Robotaxi in China, by leveraging the Level 4 automation.

Emerging Market of Electric Vehicles

Tesla is considered to be at the epitome for delivering Electric Vehicles. Reports suggests that Tesla has a market capatilization of US$ 208 billion, thus becoming the world’s most valuable automaker leaving behind Toyota, whose market Cap concluded at US$202.74 billion.

With the pandemic, a positive outlook in the sales of electric vehicles is forecasted by the analysts. The reports suggests that the global market of Electric vehicles is estimated to grow by US$567 billion by the year 2026, with an Annual Growth Rate (AGR) of around 15.6%. By the year 2019, almost 1.7 million electric vehicles were already been sold, and this sell is expected to grow by 3.7 million by the year 2021.

Thus despite a decrease in the sale of automobile vehicles globally, leveraging artificial intelligence in automobile sector will have a positive impact in the global market.