Autonomous Vehicles:Is it only a Dream?

Our civilization is at a juncture in the history where the latest engineering and the cutting edge technologies are pushing the development of the products and the allied services that a human being could only dream of, or saw it in the Sci-Fi movies. This paper looks at the viability, feasibility and the reality behind the tipping point in the transportation industry which is being touted as the major disruption or a game changer—named Autonomous Vehicles (AV) or driverless cars. Many experts have predicted the year 2025 as the key milestone year that will see the demand touching a trillion US dollars and with that market potential, there is a gold rush to grab that pie of the market. Another aspect that the paper explores is the allied and affiliated markets such as manufacturing in the automotive, transport or mobility services by the service providers and the freight transporters that goes with this. Going the high tech route, questions are being raised how real is the dream, if that is a dream at all. Are we, in fact, okay to delegate the activity of driving to a certain Artificial intelligence (AI), or, are we ready to repose that much faith in the hands of the machine and be safe? One thing is for sure, the race is ON.