Jan. 2, 2014—According to a forecast published Tuesday by auto industry consultant IHS Automotive, driverless cars will make up 9 percent of the total worldwide auto sales by 2035.
Completely driverless cars, labelled as “autonomous cars” in the study, are those that need no attention by a driver. No such car exists in the current market, but extensive studies into the technology has already begun, and is gaining steam in places like Michigan.
IHS expects the cars to be available around 2025, and that global sales of cars that year will reach 230,000. According to the report, that’s less than 1 percent of an expected 115 million car sales that year.
The same study expects sales of driverless cars to reach 11.8 million, or 9 percent of total car sales, by 2035. The majority of sales are expected to be in the U.S., Western Europe and Japan.
