The Autonomous Vehicle: End of the Road, or the Beginning of A New Era? : Concept and Challenges of a Disruptive Innovation within the Automotive Industry

Sammanfattning: The Autonomous Vehicle is about to enter the mass-market. The question is not about when it will happen but in which conditions, under which form or who will be the first car manufacturer to release an efficient and reliable final product.By now, the equation has not been solved, due to the high price of the technologies needed, the lack of solutions to provide a reliable network, and the necessity to change conventions established a long time ago in terms of responsibility of the driver.Depending on who is talking, the Autonomous vehicle is not only an evolution of a previous product, which is able to evaluate and to progressively transform into something different that we could call a self-driven car. This innovation is one step further and is challenging everything that was established until now in terms of objective criteria expected from a car. This is why some are calling this a disruptive innovation, or even a revolution, in the sense that it has the power to totally change the way we are interacting with our everyday transportation system.To enter into the market, this technology, this product, will have to overcome some challenges, on the technological side but also on the psychological side of his future clients.Therefore, this thesis research analyses why this innovation could be the future of the Automotive industry, where it is coming from, what are the challenges it will have to overcome, which will be the impacts, and the different possible scenarios.