'Robocars' are coming

ACCORDING to a new forecast from IHS Automotive, the world’s roads will be used almost exclusively by entirely self-driving vehicles – including both privately owned cars and professional fleets – by the year 2050. The US research firm expects to see 54 million self-driving cars on the roads by 2035.

IHS predicts that annual sales of autonomous vehicles will reach 230,000 by 2025 and increase exponentially over the following years, hitting 12 million a decade later. Of these 12 million vehicles, five million are expected to be entirely self-driving models, while the remaining seven million will still require some level of human control. The North American market is slated to lead the autonomous vehicle market in 2035, accounting for 29% of worldwide sales, followed by China (24%) and Western Europe (20%).