The future of AI and autonomous vehicles: transforming the automotive market through robotics and freight logistics

The automotive industry is for rapid innovation because of its widely available data context on roads, vehicles and environments. Two key areas stand out: freight transport and robotics. Both sectors offer unique opportunities for innovation and efficiency as decades of accumulated solutions finally hit the market.

Let’s discuss the characteristics of each direction, business support, and the areas that will be further developed.

Who leads the market

The global autonomous vehicle market is mainly shaped by three key regions: the United States, Europe and China.

Europe is known for having some of the most comprehensive regulatory frameworks in this field. Detailed standards such as GDPR, privacy-related requirements, and the recently adopted EU AI bill, may present challenges to innovation. In such a rigorous environment, technology development may be more cautious.

By contrast, China has taken a different approach and actively sponsored AI programs. Even if self-driving cars involve events, they are not usually pursued in the same way. They have no similar negative impact on all parties involved. The main priority is technological advancement, which is seen as a future benefit.

As for the United States, the country largely left AI initiatives to individual countries before Donald Trump became president. But with the development of the new government, the strategy shifts: authorities realize that maintaining the old approach could lead to the country in a tech race. As a result, the United States began to move towards a more liberal regulatory model – aimed at promoting technological growth and ensuring that the country remains competitive at the global stage, especially compared to China’s rapid development.

robot

The Robotaxi industry has experienced huge growth in 2024. In China, Baidu’s Apollo operates more than 400 automatic taxis in Wuhan. Waymo expanded its services to Los Angeles in the United States, providing riding to the public, and managing more than 150,000 trips. The analyst’s project notes that the global robotics market will reach $174 billion by 2045, reflecting a CAGR of 37% in 2025.

Why are robots becoming more and more popular? There are at least two key reasons.

The first reason is consumer-driven

Users are interested in robots because it eliminates many of the risks and discomforts associated with human drivers. Don’t worry about the driver being tired, aggressive, unstable or unskilled. People want a car that arrives alone, take them safely to their destination and can do that reliably.

The second reason is business-oriented

Robotaxis creates new business opportunities for individuals and small entrepreneurs. Just like Airbnb allows apartment owners to earn income by renting out properties, Robotaxis allows anyone to buy one or more self-driving cars, put them on the road, and generate income by managing the fleet. This opens the door to new areas of small-scale business and entrepreneurship.

Freight Transport

In recent years, the growth and transformation of the automatic freight transport sector has been significant. In 2024, the global autonomous truck market will be worth approximately US$356.9 billion. These figures come from research firms, although the reality is much larger, as logistics is one of the largest industries on the planet.

Every day, thousands of trucks travel on the roads in Europe and America, delivering goods, Amazon packages, food, and more – countless huge supply chains worth trillions of dollars.

The industry’s automatic truck potential is even greater than passenger transport. Trucks mostly run on long, straight highways, where conditions are more predictable than urban environments. This makes tasks of autonomous systems easier.

At the same time, logistics efficiency is greatly improved:

• The driver needs a break and sleep to avoid accidents.
• The autonomous truck operates almost non-stop and is only used for refueling or charging.
• There is sufficient range that even these stops can be minimized.
• The speed of delivery is increased, the cost is reduced, and the supply chain becomes more efficient.

At Keymakr, we support several major players in the automatic freight operation industry, so we can see innovations that have not yet been made in the market. Our team works extensively on large-scale annotation projects tailored to highway driving solutions, including object detection, lane segmentation, and sensor fusion data for lidar and camera systems.

The demand for these projects highlights the true maturity of the industry.

Business Perspective

Generally, everything related to the business environment (company transportation, B2B solutions, etc.) tends to offer higher profit margins than the B2C sector. With some exceptions, such as Uber, professional logistics operators tend to earn more than taxi service providers. This is due to pricing levels, operational scales, and the specific nature of the task.

Another key difference is that B2B operates in a more closed environment and experiences less public attention and information noise, while B2C relies more on the news cycle.

This reduces risks and simplifies the introduction of new technologies. With less focus on getting attention, companies can develop and implement innovative solutions faster, even if they are not fully mature. For these reasons, the B2B segment will see the most active development of automatic transport systems, especially logistics.

Issues of responsibility

Self-driving cars face difficult responsibilities – i.e., when an accident occurs, who must be responsible for its consequences? There are more parties associated with self-driving cars than traditional cars – everyone from owners to software developers to OEMS plays a role in its safety.

This problem is often raised, essentially, solved. The primary responsibility will depend on the company that manages the fleet (the fleet manager). These could be large companies like Uber or Lyft. Such companies create algorithms and processes for fleet management, including routes, maintenance and legal aspects. This model is similar to Airbnb: When you manage resources, you are responsible for them, and the platform provides a framework for resolving disputes.

Therefore, the management company will also be responsible for any incidents. The market will arrange an insurance system for this to help determine the exact proportion of liability for software developers, hardware manufacturers and other parties.

All in all, the future belongs to those who can combine technology solutions, business intuition and adaptability – these companies will lead a new era of mobility.