Automakers drive demand for autonomous vehicle tech

Self-driving trucks may still be several decades away from roaming American highways, but the market for autonomous vehicle technology is already booming, a report shows.

Shipments of advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) components are on track to reach 1.2 billion units annually by 2025, up from the 218.1 million units shipped in 2016, according to Boulder, Colo.-based market intelligence firm Tractica LLC. If it hits that target, the ADAS component market in 2025 would be generating $89.3 billion in annual revenue.

The steep growth is being driven by automakers that are buying up new technologies and systems designed to help drivers avoid accidents by improving their situational awareness, improving their reaction times, or enhancing their vehicles' responses to adverse conditions.

The ADAS components affected by this rush to improve roadway safety include cameras, image processors, system processors, ultrasonic sensors, solid-state lidar (a surveying method that uses lasers), high-end lidar, radar sensors, and infrared sensors, among others.

"Advances in a number of fields, including camera and imaging technology; high power, low energy consumption processing; advanced neural networks and data processing; and others, have shifted the focal point of technology innovation from the computer in the 1990s, to the mobile handset in the 2000s, and in the current decade, to the automobile," Tractica Principal Analyst Keith Kirkpatrick said in a release.