The global automotive industry has become all too used to shocks in the past couple of years. And now it needs to gear up for another one – the speed of change towards new “disruptive” mobility services such as autonomous driving and car sharing.

The third edition of the Automotive Disruption Radar (ADR), our twice-yearly report on mobility trends in 13 countries from the US to Japan, shows an unprecedented shift to these new technologies, one that has surprised even industry analysts.

In the 12 months since the first edition ADR#1 was published, customer interest in new mobility services has jumped: the number of US city center dwellers who would switch from car ownership to autonomous driving services such as robocabs if they cost less rose by a tenth to 40%, for example, while the same figure for young Chinese leapt by more than half to 25%. Across all countries and age groups, the figure remained steady at 45%.

In addition, the proportion of interviewed Germans stating that they use car sharing, ride hailing or taxi services nearly doubled to 3.7%, leapt by more than a third to 6.1% in the US, and rose by a seventh in China to 18.3%.

In a new question, a global majority – 55% – said they would be happy to use robocabs. Only four countries (USA, UK, Netherlands and Japan) have a majority against. The most important condition for using a robocab is the proven safety of the used technologies (55%). The main reason for not using them was the pleasure of driving (35%). On average, men would be more willing to use robocabs than women, by 58% to 52%.

Technological developments driving change as money from investors pours into the industry

ADR#3’s technology-related indicators underscore the rapid growth. They show that the number of R&D staff as listed on LinkedIn and working in the mobility services and autonomous driving sectors increased by almost a quarter to 51,000 between 2016 and 2017. The study also reveals there has been good progress in increasing autonomous vehicle computer power. This includes the recent announcement of NVIDIA’s Drive PX Pegasus system, the world’s first artificial intelligence computer designed to operate all aspects of a self-driving car.

The money to fund such technologies and mobility services continues to pour in. Venture capital in mobility received a huge boost: it went from US$9.3 billion to US$21.4 billion in the same period – a whopping 130% increase. Artificial intelligence firms also benefited, with investments jumping 107% to US$3.2 billion between 2016 and 2017.

The pace of change in regulations – the key enabler of mobility services – is more modest, but still significant. For example, since ADR#2 was published in September 2017, the number of countries having completed the necessary regulatory groundwork to allow the public and commercial testing of autonomous vehicles rose to four of the 13. Meanwhile, the number of surveyed cities that introduced some form of curbs on internal combustion engines rose from 52 to 71 out of 183 over the past 12 months since ADR#1.

When it comes to industry action, the past six months have shown that driverless mobility is moving fast from a technological dream to actual services and solutions. Since ADR#2, Google’s autonomous car company Waymo has announced plans to launch the world’s first driverless ride-hailing service in spring 2018, and General Motors flagged plans to introduce autonomous cars from 2019.

Download the infographic here (PDF).

Global figures in ADR#3 also shine a light on electric vehicle global adoption progress: from the survey, we find that 40% of people from the 13 countries are considering buying an electric vehicle as their next car and the number of EV models available has risen from 8% of the total a year ago to 10%. The main reasons for wanting to buy an EV were their suitability for short trips as well as tax advantages.

In summary, mobility concepts are changing fast, with the autonomous driving juggernaut moving at full speed. Overall, Asian countries lead the ranking in ADR#3: China again finished top, closely followed by South Korea and Singapore, with the Netherlands coming next and then Sweden. However, while Asian countries are leading the way in opening their roads to self-driving vehicles, again scoring highest in ADR#3, it is expected that mature markets will host the first commercial service. The race is on.