Disruptions from Vehicle Innovations (2016)

Innovation in automaking has historically been driven by a handful of large and storied automakers. However, recent technological developments promising to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and “autonomous” or “self-driving” vehicles are disrupting the industry and bringing new automakers such as Google and Tesla to the automaking space. With the emergence of EV startups like Tesla, global electric models like Nissan Leaf, prospects for declining battery costs, availability of a range of government subsidies, and public/private infrastructure investments, it is a good time to ask whether we’re on the cusp of an EV “tipping point.” This potential tipping point comes at exactly the same time in which advanced automation promises to alter fundamentally the relationship between human beings and the machines they depend upon. These intersecting trends are driving the future of automobiles, so we’ve decided to expand the EV Tipping Point Challenge to include this larger set of “disruptive vehicle innovations”. If you are interested in electric vehicles, autonomous or self-driving vehicles, sustainable transportation, and how technology is reshaping mobility, join our challenge and forecast the future of disruptive vehicle innovations. Questions are being developed by researchers involved with the Program on Vehicle and Mobility Innovation (PVMI) at the Mack Institute of Innovation Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. We will track fast-changing developments in technology, automaker strategies, new entrants, and regulatory stances to provide up-to-the-minute questions that will both educate forecasters about these new issues while involving them in a global crowd-sourced effort to predict the trajectory of these exciting multi-faceted and intertwined vehicle innovations.