Autonomy: Enabling trust for the masses

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) have arrived. You've probably read about them in the headlines. You might have spotted one next to you on the highway. Maybe you've even ridden in one. But they haven't yet reached the masses. Why?  Among several reasons is this: Bringing all the components of the autonomous vehicle ecosystem together -- hardware, software, data, security, integration, and compliance -- in a harmonious system is challenging the transportation industry.

Holistic technology governance of the smart mobility ecosystem will pave the way

We believe the cornerstone of the autonomous future will be a shared technology platform that supports interactions across the broad mobility spectrum. Made possible by the new era of connectivity we find ourselves in today, the platform will facilitate communication between the people who develop and use them, including software and technology vendors, auto manufacturers, service providers, governments and citizens.

Executive summary

Since 2012, KPMG has tracked a technological revolution: the rise of autonomous vehicles. We've studied the incredible impact it is already having on people, businesses and cities, and we've predicted how the future will continue to unfold for all who are touched by the transportation ecosystem.

We've also focused in on one of the barriers to mass adoption of autonomous vehicles: trust. In the first paper in this series, Trust issues? we asked ourselves what it would take for us to sit in a car with an empty driver's seat. With no one at the wheel. With a machine in charge. With our lives at stake.

Trust is mandatory. We found that how we govern each technological component of an autonomous vehicle—including its hardware, software and data—is essential to gaining trust. And since each component relies on the next to operate, even more important is how we govern all of them as a whole. We introduced the concept of holistic technology governance, a framework for orchestrating the governance of the technologies inside autonomous vehicles that is essential to building the foundation of trust necessary for individuals to regularly use autonomous vehicles.

Now, as the autonomous age gets closer to reality, this paper takes the concept one step further to explore the role of holistic technology governance in the context of the early markets where autonomy first develops—what we call "islands of autonomy." In these islands, autonomous vehicle fleets, individually owned autonomous vehicles and traditional nonautonomous vehicles must harmoniously navigate the streets together, relying on numerous different technologies, including cameras, sensors, connected infrastructure, and wired and wireless networks. How?

Holistic technology governance is critical for islands of autonomy to develop and the autonomous age to arrive. Holistic technology governance sets policies, rules and standards for the behaviors and actions of all island participants, including government departments of transportation, automakers and suppliers, smart transportation and infrastructure businesses, and mobility vendors. This enables the exchange of data between numerous different technologies and helps ensure the safe, secure, reliable and efficient operation of the smart transportation systems through which island participants interact.

Read this paper to uncover how holistic technology governance drives trust in the transportation systems of the future and adoption of autonomous vehicles on a mass scale.