(c)iStock.com/chombosan

A report from McKinsey details 10 potential implications for driverless cars in the automotive ecosystem across three areas.

Autonomous vehicle (AV) technology is set to transform the economy, mobility, and society even as adoption with regards to specific parameters such as timing, uptake, and penetration is still unclear. Experts across the Europe, US and Asia foresee change in the automotive ecosystem in a number of areas.

The first era will witness the development of fully AVs for consumers though this target audience will not benefit from market availability. Instead, at present, sectors such as mining and farming are currently using autonomous technology and making the best of labour-cost savings and a decline in CO2 emissions. Automakers are expected to provide a strategic outlook on their development of autonomous technology in the next two to three years, offering insight on rollout in the consumer segment. Meanwhile, the emergence of new mobility models is expected to continue, especially the e-hailing type.

Consumer adoption will signal the beginning of the second era and this will result in disruption in the car service sector as customers show a preference for OEMs with regard to maintenance, creating a new revenue stream for automakers. Car insurers will also have to alter their business models to focus on covering car manufacturers from liabilities from technical failure of their AVs. Finally, the supply chain landscape will also be altered as incumbents utilise automation to drive efficiency and flexibility.

The third era will be recognised by the mainstream adoption of AVs where commuters across the globe will benefit from time savings totalling one billion hours, creating global digital-media revenues of €5 billion on an annual basis. There will also be a decline in parking spaces and accidents. Autonomous technology will then be utilised for the development of robotics technology targeting consumer applications, fuelling investment in AVs and robotics.

You can find more about the report here.