Autonomous & Electric Vehicles Market & IP Landscape

Autonomous vehicles (AVs), also known as driverless or self-driving vehicles, are vehicles that incorporate vehicular automation and are capable of sensing its environment and operate with little or no human intervention.

Autonomous vehicles are equipped with a variety of sensors (e.g., radar, lidar, sonar, GPS) to perceive their surroundings and advanced control, safety and navigation systems.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are vehicles that use electric motors and motor controllers for propulsion

Electric vehicles have emerged as a promising alternative to traditional internal combustion engine vehicles due to benefits in reduced emission, improved fuel economy and lower maintenance cost. Electric vehicles have benefited from the latest technology advances in energy harvesting, regenerative braking, and low temperature fast charging. However, mass adoption of electric vehicles faces major barriers due to concerns over several battery-related issues, such as limited range, lack of charging stations, long charging time and battery recycling. Existing solutions to overcome these challenges include increasing battery capacity, swappable car batteries, building more charging stations and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) charging.

The race to the electric car is just getting started. Automakers and artificial intelligence hardware and software providers are collaborating & investing in order to reap the profits in a fast-changing market shaped by next-generation connectivity, autonomous technologies and shared mobility. Recently, Hyundai Motor and KT Corporation expanded strategic partnership on 5G communication network-based connected car security communication and the next-generation 6G autonomous driving technology. 5G Automotive Association develops and promotes 3GPP standardized protocols (Cellular V2X) for accelerating widespread deployment of 5G wireless technology in the autonomous vehicle industry.

Adoption of 5G networks and AI-ML in the autonomous vehicle industry is accelerating due to rapidly evolving customer expectations and imitation of competitors in multiple parts of the supply chain

• Automakers, telecommunications and AI-ML hardware and software providers are investing recently in order to grab their market share: ZF Friedrichshafen invested in StradVision to enhance automated driving perception; Nvidia acquired DeepMap for high-definition autonomous vehicle mapping

• Accelerating adoption of 5G networks and AI-ML is also evident from 30%+ CAGR growth in new organizations over the past 3 years.

• High-quality entrants raising +$50M in the past 3 years include: SparkCognition, AutoX, Shield AI, Ghost Locomotion and Affectiva

A major influence on investment in future vehicles is development of longer-term & lighter solid state battery charging technologies to eliminate “range anxiety”

• Major barriers in electric vehicle mass adoption includes limited range, lack of charging stations and long charging time

• One of the biggest benefits of solid state batteries over a liquid-filled cell, is superior energy density (the amount of energy in a given size and weight). Several major automakers and battery manufacturers are already investing in this area and leaders include Toyota, General Motors, BMW, Hyundai, Factorial Energy, ProLogium Tech and Tesla

• Wireless electric vehicle charging technology is more convenient and harder to vandalize compared to traditional public charging units

• Another significant benefit is that the vehicle can be charged while in motion as opposed to charging the EV while parked

• There are some attempts to integrate wireless charging in EV. WiTricity is developing a wireless charging system for the Tesla Model 3

• BMW was the first automaker to introduce wireless charging program using its 5-Series plug-in hybrid

Diversified patenting strategies are evident from a wide range of landscape leaders

• Top patent portfolio holders comprise players from various industrial sectors: automotive manufacturers, automotive component suppliers, AI-ML hardware and software providers, and mobility as a service providers

• Diversified patenting strategies among the leaders: rapid patent application filing from Asian and European automotive manufacturers; relatively flat in US automotive manufacturers but with higher percent of granted patents (road blockers); AI-ML software providers (e.g., Alphabet, Huawei, Baidu) are active in covering digital platforms for AV safety, navigation and accident monitoring and avoidance

• Cross-licensing might be an option to facilitate collaborations between industrial leaders and boost the adoption of the AV & EV industry. Alternatively, Elon Musk announced in June of 2014 that Tesla would “not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology… will strengthen rather than diminish Tesla’s position in this regard.”

Objectives of Intellar Autonomous Vehicles & Electric Vehicles IP Landscape Dashboards

• Intellar Autonomous Vehicles & Electric Vehicles Landscape Dashboards are designed to visualize who is doing what, when and where - and for how much?

• Key concepts: autonomous cars/vehicles, driverless cars/vehicles, robotic cars/vehicles, self-driving cars/vehicles, autonomous driving, electric cars/vehicles, hybrid cars/vehicles

Data Coverage for Intellar Autonomous Vehicles & Electric Vehicles IP Landscape Dashboards

• More than 50,000 de-duplicated global simple patent families published in (machine translated) English since 2016

• Technical literature, scientific, medical and engineering journal abstracts, full text (when available) & images published in English since 2017

• News articles, press releases, business research, market forecasts, announcements and magazine content published in English since 2020

Categorization for Intellar Autonomous Vehicles & Electric Vehicles IP Landscape Dashboards

This landscape’s technology taxonomy covers:

• Autonomous Vehicles & Electric Vehicles Components

• Autonomous Vehicles & Electric Vehicles Types

• Autonomous Vehicles & Electric Vehicles Industry Verticals

• Autonomous Vehicles & Electric Vehicles Services

• Autonomous Vehicles & Electric Vehicles Communications

• Autonomous Vehicles & Electric Vehicles Computing Systems

• Autonomous Vehicles & Electric Vehicles Piloting and Handling

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