The “ACES” are the four key technological trends for the future of mobility, standing for “Autonomous, Connected, Electric & Shared Vehicles”.
They represent the integration of technology into the mobility space and will revolutionize how we interact with vehicles.
Autonomous: It has been suggested that creating a fully autonomous roadworthy vehicle is more complex than the Moon landings – with an estimated one billion lines of code being required to allow the vehicle to perceive its surroundings (perception), understand its precise location (localization & mapping), predict the movements of pedestrians & other vehicles in the vicinity (prediction) and plan a suitable route to maneuvre to their destination (planning & motion control), which is all supported by a myriad of sensors and compute platforms.
Google-owned Waymo, General Motors-backed Cruise and Chinese tech giant Baidu lead the way with autonomous driving – all offering passengers fully autonomous rides in the US and China with plans to expand significantly by the end of the decade.
Connected: Cars have become increasingly more software-defined, and now vehicle manufacturers can offer in-car purchases, unlocks or upgrades for your vehicle (in-car purchases and subscriptions by Tesla customers amounted to €2.1bn in revenue in 2022) and manufacturers are set to expand their offerings regarding in-car purchases and subscriptions to create brand-new revenue streams. Additionally, Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) or Car-to-Everything (C2X) technology will play an important role in supporting autonomous vehicles and improving efficiency, allowing vehicles to communicate with each other as well as sensors to support the safest and fastest route planning based on real-time data. Companies like Cavnue, Seoul Robotics and mobile telecommunications organizations are working heavily in this sector.
Electrification: Electric vehicles aren’t new, with the first electric car debuting in the 1830’s. However, with a global focus on climate action and reducing emissions, there has been a move away from the development of traditional fossil-fuel based engines from vehicle manufacturers and a focus on developing electric vehicles – with BMW setting a target of 50% of their new vehicles sold being electric by 2030, whilst Stellantis are looking to make all of their vehicles sold in Europe after 2030 be battery-electric powered.
Shared-Service Vehicles: With 40million ride hailing trips being booked per day with Uber and Lyft, there is a move away from a reliance on personal vehicles to ride-hailing and mobility as a service (MaaS), with the market expected to be worth over €700bn by 2030.
Micromobility shared offerings, such as eScooters and eBikes offered on a smartphone accessed rental-basis by the likes of Lime, Bird & Wind Mobility are now commonplace in cities across the world and another example of changing mobility preferences and the overall mobility revolution. Metric Search has partnered with vehicle manufacturers, T1 suppliers & innovative start-up organizations across the globe that are contributing to this mobility revolution; such as Cruise, Wayve, ZF, Bosch, Valeo, Magna Electronics amongst others and looks forward to continuing to support organizations that are disrupting the way the world moves
