As the grounding saga of the Boeing 737 Max drags on, more lessons emerge that the automated driving industry should pay attention to. The first lesson is the danger of letting foxes guard the henhouse, or in this case allowing the aircraft industry…
Category: Guidehouse Insights
The Robotaxi Gives Way to Automated Delivery
As shelter-in-place mandates have been imposed around the world, a trend is accelerating in the automated driving (AD) space. The robotaxi that was supposed to make all of our personally owned vehicles obsolete may have itself become obsolete before…
The Race to Build Batteries Accelerates
A healthy market requires a balance between supply and demand. If there is not enough supply prices climb, and demand withers. Too much supply and suppliers can’t charge enough to be sustainable. Automakers and battery manufacturers face this…
Shared Mobility Is Coming But Electric Pickups Are Almost Here
Investor and Stanford University instructor Tony Seba published a paper in 2017 proclaiming that 95% of US passenger miles would be in shared automated vehicles by 2030. While the end goal is directionally correct, that timeline seems extremely…
Can the Growth of EV Battery Swapping in China Overcome Challenges?
My colleague Scott Shepard recently wrote about the growth of battery swapping for EVs in China. He outlined numerous benefits, including rapid turnaround times compared to charging and even refueling internal combustion engines (ICE). However, there…
In-App Purchases Are Taking Over Your Car
I may cover automated vehicles (AVs) as an analyst but I still love to drive. Rolling down a country road in my 30-year-old MX-5 Miata as the evening sun fades never fails to put a smile on my face. I also enjoy playing racing simulation games such…
Audi Motorsport Marks the End of an Era as It Shifts to Formula E
Over more than 3 decades, few companies have demonstrated more consistently how to “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday” than Audi. Since at least the 1980s, Audi has used its involvement in motorsports to demonstrate the efficacy of its latest…
The Plug-In Hybrids Are Coming, But Will the Market Buy?
The bulk of new product introductions focused on electrification at the 2019 Los Angeles Auto Show, not surprising given that California is the largest market for plug-in EVs (PEVs) in the US. However, while there were multiple new battery EVs (BEVs)…
New Modes of Seeing the World Coming to Automated Vehicles
For the past 15 years, red-green-blue (RGB) cameras, radar, and lidar have largely been the holy trinity of sensors to enable automated vehicles to see the world. That perception suite is starting to evolve as an array of new technologies begin to…
Commercial Vehicle Electrification Can Have an Outsized Impact
In 2007, General Motors (GM) launched versions of its full-size pickup trucks and SUVs powered by a two-mode hybrid system. While the system was a technical success, it was a commercial failure. The logic behind hybridizing its thirstiest vehicles…