Research Overview

Autonomous shared mobility technology, after years of development and testing in the real world, is on the verge of reaching commercial viability on a large scale. In 2021, the global market opportunity from autonomous mobility was approximately $27 million. This is expected to reach $92 billion in 2035, accounting for the market changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Governments across the world are looking to discourage private vehicle travel and to shift intra-city commuting toward greener public transport systems. In the context of this study, autonomous shared mobility is defined as transportation solutions that do not require the presence of a human driver and are represented as self-driven taxis called robotaxis and self-driven shuttles called autonomous shuttles. The importance of these forms of autonomous mobility is rooted in their ability to reduce the costs of on-demand transportation per kilometer, reduce accidents and road fatalities, and contribute to achieving emission norms and climate goals.

Autonomous mobility solutions like shuttles will play a key role in de-congesting city centers and providing public transport in rural areas. Autonomous vehicles by design can have high utilization figures and get optimized to match demand. While robotaxis are expected to replace the traditional taxi fleet and connected-car ride-hailing fleet, the favorable rider economics and schedule flexibility will cause some private car journeys to shift to robotaxis as well. Meanwhile, autonomous shuttles are expected to deploy on short urban and rural routes as last-mile connectivity between transport hubs and destinations and in areas where scheduled bus services are unviable.