Robotaxi Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Propulsion Type (Electric Vehicle, Hybrid Vehicle, and Fuel Cell Vehicle), By Application (Goods and Passenger), By Component Type (LiDAR, RADAR, Camera, and Sensors), and Regional Forecasts, 2022-2029

The global robotaxi market size valued at USD 1.71 billion in the year 2022 and is projected to reach a value of 118.61 Billion by the year 2031. The global market is expected to grow exhibiting a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 80.8% over the forecast period 2022-2031.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has been unprecedented and staggering, with robotaxi experiencing higher-than-anticipated demand across all regions compared to pre-pandemic levels. Based on our analysis, the global market exhibited a growth of 72.5 % in 2020 as compared to 2019.

Robotaxi is a self-driving/autonomous taxi driving concept with no human intervention and operated through ride-sharing services. The shared autonomous mobility has components such as LiDAR, RADAR, high-density sensors, and various other software algorithms to function properly.

Furthermore, autonomous type of taxis are connected with the internal & external V2X environment through strong internet connections so as to get real-time updates and reduce fatalities. In addition, major companies are stepping into this technology to manufacture autonomous taxis in developing countries, which will fuel the market growth in the coming years.

COVID-19 IMPACT

COVID-19 Temporarily Halted & Postponed Development of Autonomous Taxi Due to Shortage in Semiconductor Chip

Government-enforced lockdowns and economic crisis-induced due to the COVID-19 pandemic have severely impacted the key players in the global market. Nearly all the driverless autonomous vehicle development companies were either planning to introduce under development or going through the testing phase of their shared autonomous mobility. The COVID-19 pandemic induced an economic downturn, and restrictions temporarily suspended the testing of these autonomous vehicles. Additionally, slowed down Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) investment in shared autonomous mobility development significantly hampered the market growth. The companies had to extend their plan to open up robot taxi ride-hailing services. For instance, in March 2020, Waymo temporarily paused its ride-hailing services due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to closed businesses and lack of demand for commutation, various ride-hailing companies considered cost-cutting initiatives to sustain their business during the pandemic. For instance, In May 2020, Uber announced the layoff of 600 employees in India as part of a cost-cutting initiative in the face of the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Similarly, Lyft announced in April 2020 that it would be decreasing its staff numbers by 17%, to 982 people, due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on Lyft's business.

The companies also reduced or stopped their investment in research and development of shared autonomous mobility due to a lack of funding and cost-cutting initiative, which ultimately postponed robotaxi development further. Autonomous taxis rely on various electronic systems such as autonomous driving systems, battery management systems, sensors, LiDAR, control units, and others. All these systems are highly essential and mandatory for the efficient and safe working of vehicles. Therefore, delays in the availability of semiconductor chips also affected the launch of autonomous taxi fleets, which further hampered market growth.

Several governments have introduced long-term plans to reduce the dependency on the small number of semiconductor chip manufacturers in Asia Pacific. For instance, in February 2022, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen introduced the European Chips Act, and the U.S. government passed the CHIPS Act in 2021 to boost the domestic production of chips.

Therefore, initiatives taken by the government worldwide to increase the domestic production of semiconductor chips post-pandemic are likely to influence the robotaxi market growth in the near future.

LATEST TRENDS

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Increasing Demand for Energy-efficient Vehicles to Favor Growth

The growing adoption of fuel-efficient and emission-free vehicles is a major trend witnessed in the global market. The increasing imposition of stringent emission norms has enabled manufacturers to develop fuel-cell-based and electric vehicles. Robotaxi is fully autonomous and thereby needs an efficient and advanced fuel system to run the vehicle. The increasing adoption of such vehicles is expected to reduce congestion on roads leading to better air quality and reduced emissions. For instance, on January 18th, 2021, Hyundai revealed that it is in talks with Apple to reduce high manufacturing costs in developing Apple’s autonomous car.

Moreover, in December 2021, Alphabet’s self-driving car company Waymo partnered with Chinese automaker Geely to create a fleet of all-electric, self-driving taxis. Waymo plans to add the newly designed Geely vehicle to its Waymo One autonomous fleet in the U.S within the next few years.

In 2021, Motional, an autonomous vehicles startup, also revealed its Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric robotaxi and also announced to commercialize its service by 2023 through the Lyft app.

DRIVING FACTORS

Increasing Adoption of Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) to Fuel Market Growth

The increasing implementation of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in an autonomous vehicle is expected to drive the market growth during the forecast period. Advanced ultrasonic sensors, cameras, and software are widely used in road obstacle mapping systems. This helps to improve the applicability of ADAS in all vehicle segments. Owing to increasing concerns about passenger safety, governments in developing countries have imposed strict safety regulations on automakers to develop vehicles equipped with ADAS functions. According to the road safety report released by the World Health Organization in 2018, the global road death toll reached 1.35 million. For instance, in September 2018, the Union Ministry of India announced that the Indian government is focused on making road transportation safer by implementing ADAS features in all vehicle segments by 2022. According to the Ministry, electronic stability control and blind-spot detection systems will be mandatory across all vehicle segments by 2022.

Thus, the increasing adoption of ADAS features in vehicles set the positive prospectus for the growth of market during the forecast period.

Increasing Need for Better Road Safety and Traffic Control to Fuel Market Growth

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation reports, human mistake is implicated in 94% of today's traffic accidents in the United States, claiming the lives of 1.3 million people each year. Also, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), road accidents are the biggest cause of death for children and young adults aged 5 to 29.

Thus, implementing autonomous driving technologies can help to save hundreds of thousands of lives each year. These autonomous type of taxis have various advantages over traditional vehicles since they are outfitted with modern LiDAR, RADAR, sensors, and cameras for operation.

The technologically advanced short and long-range sensors help detect obstacles around the vehicles and reduce the rate of road accidents. These vehicles also help to reduce traffic congestion while running on the road. For instance, according to a University of Illinois research, if one is trapped in a traffic jam with around 20 cars operated by humans, the autonomous taxi maintains its speed, detects vehicles around it, and drives at a steady pace in a single lane, helping to alleviate road congestion.

Moreover, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), implementing autonomous driving would significantly prevent some of the most major risk factors such as speeding, driving under the influence of drugs, alcohol, or psychoactive substances, and distracted driving.

In addition, such taxis are moving at a controlled pace, helping to reduce fuel consumption.

Therefore, the increasing need for better road safety and traffic control is anticipated to fuel the growth of market in the near future.

RESTRAINTING FACTORS

High Cost of R&D and Complexity in Adoption of Autonomous Vehicles to Restrain Growth

A shared autonomous mobility consists of more than 40 sensors, including RADAR, cameras, and LiDAR that help in the vehicle's efficient functioning. These advanced sensors are expensive and their work depends on the type of hardware and software used during operational activities. For instance, automotive LiDAR can cost up to USD 50,000, which adds up to the cost of the vehicle.

Thus, the full-fledged deployment of driverless taxi services necessitates large investments due to the high cost of components. In addition, the implementation and integration of robotaxis is a time-consuming and difficult process, as the very less availability of level-4 and level-5 autonomous vehicles for analyzing and testing as these vehicles are in the development phase. Moreover, the designing and development of software for such autonomous vehicles is a challenging problem, and the broad use of level 5 autonomous vehicles is not only capital-intensive but also subjected to regulatory compliance.

A robotaxi is needed to analyze massive quantities of sensor data, which is nearly 100 times greater than that required by the most advanced vehicles currently available in market. The complexity of software is expanding at an exponential rate, with several Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) operating concurrently as part of a software stack. To operate these vehicles in a variety of environments throughout the world, rigorous DNN training with a vast quantity of data is necessary. Due to the growing number of autonomous driving mobility on the road, this data is likely to expand tremendously.

For instance, according to Nvidia, a robotaxi fleet of 50 vehicles traveling for six hours each day might generate around 1.6 petabytes of data every day. This volume of data is tough to store and interpret, allowing cars to perform a variety of roles under a variety of settings.

Leading companies, such as Volvo, Hyundai, Nissan, Volkswagen, Microsoft, and General Motors, already have an adequate resource to enter the autonomous taxi business. However, firms with lower resources, on the other hand, cannot afford costly R&D procedures, which is expected to hamper the market growth during the forecast period.

SEGMENTATION

By Propulsion Type Analysis

Electric Vehicle to Dominate Market During Forecast Period Owing to Increasing Focus on Electrification

By propulsion type, the global market is segmented into the electric vehicle, hybrid electric vehicle, and fuel cell vehicle.

The key growth drivers for the electric vehicle segment are primarily increased focus on sustainability and decarburization, driven by regulations and the maturity of EVs. The main challenge in the adoption of electric vehicles is lack of charging infrastructure.

However, the startup called WiTricity is working on wireless charging systems based on magnetic resonance, which can increase the range of EV. WiTricity has partnerships with more than a dozen automakers, including nine of the world’s 10 largest.

Such prospectus of hybrid electric vehicles is expected to have large space adoption of this technology in future driverless taxis. In addition, the fuel cell segment is expected to show good growth in the long term. In recent years, there has been an increased demand for fuel cells as they provide high efficiency, less noise, and low maintenance than gasoline and diesel.

In addition, major companies are also seeking the opportunity and focusing on the development of fuel-cell-based robotaxi.

By Application Analysis

Passenger Dominates Market Supported by Reducing Fuel & Travel Costs

Based on application, the market is segmented into passenger and goods.

The passenger segment held the largest market share in 2021. Conventional taxis are more prone to road accidents than autonomous passenger taxis. Moreover, autonomous passenger taxis reduce travel costs from one destination to another, leading to significant fuel and driver costs.

In recent years, various automobile companies have introduced innovative products to improve the convenience of public transportation. These factors are expected to contribute to the growth of the segment in the forthcoming years.

The goods segment is anticipated to exhibit a higher CAGR during the forecast period. The goods segment is anticipated to show decent growth during the forecast period as most automobile companies are investing in autonomous vehicles. The robotic assistance provided by self-driving cars to small businesses for goods transportation, replenishment, and other daily tasks is expected to be one of the main adoption factors of robotic taxis. For instance, in November 2021, Nuro raised USD 600 million investment and also announced that it is working on a robotaxi.

By Component Type Analysis

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LiDAR Segment to Lead Market Share Owing to Technology Advancement and Emergence of 4D LiDAR

The LiDAR segment is expected to be the fastest-growing segment during the forecast period. LiDAR is used to reflect pulse light to calculate the distance between two vehicles. It works more precisely when it is integrated with advanced sensors. Rapid technological advancement in automotive LiDAR and the emergence of 4D LiDAR are expected to offer lucrative opportunities for the automotive LiDAR market growth. In addition, a surge in investments & funding in LiDAR startups is expected to drive the segmental growth. RADAR is one of the crucial components used in autonomous taxis for collision avoidance, vehicle & pedestrian avoidance, and others. In addition, there is a growing trend to enhance the range resolution and signal bandwidth of automotive types of radars. The growing adoption of technologically advanced trifocal cameras and camera-based driver assistant sensors in driverless vehicles is one of the primary factors boosting segmental growth. In addition, sensors contribute to the second largest segment in the global market owing to their property of detecting seen & unseen obstacles around the vehicle efficiently. Moreover, technologically advanced sensors are equipped in different vehicle parts, which enhances ADAS, one of the crucial features of autonomous vehicles.

REGIONAL INSIGHTS

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Asia Pacific dominated the robotaxi market share in 2021. Macroeconomic factors such as rise in purchasing power and increasing adoption of high-end technologies will fuel the growth of the market in this region. Moreover, key emerging countries such as India, South Korea, and China are major markets for the automotive industry and technologically advanced components.

In addition, there is presence of prominent players along with the emergence of strongly funded autonomous vehicle start-ups in the region. This will lead to an exponential increase in the product demand.

Europe is expected to show significant growth in the market due to the high demand for comfort driving and consumers' preference for luxury & in-vehicle driving safety features. Moreover, established regulations on occupant safety and the higher disposable income of customers are responsible for the market growth in this region.

North America is also expected to show good growth in the market, owing to numerous development projects undertaken by the governments across the region. The growing partnership & collaboration among players have led to the early adoption of advanced technologies. For instance, in December 2020, Motional & Lyft announced to launch autonomous vehicle services in multiple cities in the United States by 2023.

KEY INDUSTRY PLAYERS

Tesla Inc. to Develop Several Charging Infrastructures to Strengthen Its Market Position

Tesla is one of the leading manufacturers of pure electric vehicles headquartered in California, U.S. The company designs, develops, manufactures, and sells fully electric vehicles, energy generation, and storage systems. It also provides vehicle service centers, charging stations, and self-driving technologies. In 2020, Tesla sold the highest number of electric cars than any other manufacturer.

LIST OF KEY COMPANIES PROFILED:

• Tesla Inc. (U.S.)


• Waymo LLC (U.S.)


• Aptiv (Ireland)


• Uber Technologies Inc. (U.S.)


• Cruise LLC (U.S.)


• Lyft, Inc (U.S.)


• Baidu (China)


• Didi Chuxing Technology Co (China)


• Zoox, Inc (U.S.)


• AutoX, Inc (U.S.)

KEY INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS:

• July 2021- AutoX unveiled its Gen5 shared autonomous mobility self-driving system, an autonomous driving platform that is designed for autonomous vehicles. It utilizes NVIDIA DRIVE automotive-grade GPUs to reach up to 2,200 trillion operations per second of AI compute performance. The new system is the next step for the company in its global rollout of more efficient and safer autonomous transportation.


• April 2022- China granted its first permit to Baidu and a rival autonomous car company, Pony.ai, to provide driverless ride-hailing services to the public in Beijing. The permit provided Baidu and Pony.ai to offer driverless rides without a safety driver behind the wheel to take over in case of emergency.


• July 2021- In an industry collaboration, Lyft, Ford Motor Company, and Argo AI collaborated to commercialize driverless autonomous ride-hailing at scale, including self-driving technology, autonomous vehicle fleet, and transportation network to support scalable business to offer a safe autonomous ride-hailing experience to the riders.


• November 2020- Walmart announced a partnership with Cruise to offer driverless delivery solutions. Cruise’s robot-piloted cars will ferry orders to its customers’ residences from a Walmart store in Scottsdale, Arizona, starting from 2021. The partnership will provide a pathway into potentially lucrative delivery services distinct from its primary focus on ride-hailing shared autonomous mobility.


• September 2021- Motional, a Hyundai-Aptiv joint venture, introduced its first robotaxi, which will be available on Lyft’s app. The company’s battery-electric IONIQ5 driverless taxi is based on the same vehicle that launched in early 2021. The new taxi is a Level 4 autonomous vehicle. Therefore, it can safely operate without a driver.

REPORT COVERAGE

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The global robotaxi market research report covers a detailed market analysis. It focuses on key aspects such as leading companies, product types, and leading product applications. Besides this, the report offers insights into the market trends and highlights key industry developments. In addition to the factors mentioned above, the report delivers an in-depth electric vehicle market analysis of several factors that have contributed to its growth in recent years.

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