Sensors for robotic - or autonomous - vehicles will become 'industries of their own,' set to experience impressive growth rates, according to recent analysis by Yole Développement (Yole). High-end markets such as lidar are set to double in the next few years
In 2017, the production of robotic vehicles was in the range of a few hundred worldwide. By 2032, Yole is expecting production volumes to reach 3.1 million units annually, creating annual revenues of $300 billion. Yole estimates that 52 per cent of that figure will originate from the vehicles themselves, 26 per cent will come from sensing hardware, 17 per cent from computing hardware and the remaining five per cent will be from integration.
Sensor revenues are predicted to reach $1.6 billion for lidar, $44 million for radar, $0.6 billion for cameras, $0.9 billion for inertial measurement unit sensors (IMUs) and $0.1 billion for global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) by 2022. By 2032, the split between the different sensor modalities may differ, but total revenues for sensing hardware should reach $77 billion in 2032, while, for comparative purposes, computing should be in the range of $52 billion.
'Within 15 years complete industries will be structured around robotic vehicle technologies', said Pierre Cambou, activity leader, Imaging at Yole.
