The public has now been made aware that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (NYSE:$FCAU) is joining BMW (ETR:$BMW), Intel (NASDAQ:$INTC), and Mobileye (NYSE:$MBLY) in a partnership to manufacturer autonomous cars.
The alliance will be led by BMW, and the company will attempt to develop “robotaxis” which can be called up through smartphone and paid for by the minute.
It makes sense that Fiat Chrysler is venturing out into the world of self-driving cabs, as the market for such a cab has the potential to be worth $2 trillion by the year 2030, according to consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Why is that? Well, it seems younger customers have started to abandon car ownership in favor of a pay-per-use mobility service.
According to Fiat Chrysler, the company plans to put autonomous car technology into production by 2021, which compares to a time-frame shared by rival companies who are also in the midst of developing self-driving cars.
Further, BMW, Intel, and Mobileye all said that FCAU would bring engineering and other expertise to the deal. This is significant, as it is likely to create an industry-wide autonomous car platform which other car makers could adopt.
It’s not unusual to hear that automakers are looking for alliances in order to develop autonomous cars, as the costs are extremely high. Based on what Frost & Sullivan, a consulting firm, has said, autonomous cars will make up roughly 10% to 15% of vehicles in Europe by the year 2030.
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