Driverless mobility and the geographic analysis of contemporary autonomous vehicles startup ecosystem

Over 50 billion US dollars had been invested into autonomous vehicles (AV) technology in 2013-2017. Driverless cars of the level 4 and 5 are forecasted to be in mass production after 2028 and the annual direct and indirect social and economic input of the AV technology is estimated to be over US $1.8-2.8 trillion in 2030. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the geographic structure of AV startup ecosystem, which is considered as one of the most significant disruptive and game-changing innovations of the nearest decades. The geographic analysis was carried out for 265 AV tech companies and startups, working on solutions to the following problem areas: services, infrastructure, in-car assistance and intelligence, safety, security, autonomy, sensors, materials and manufacturing. The key findings outline that the USA is the leader on the innovative AV market ecosystem (accounting for 57% of all startups) with the highest concentration near San Francisco Bay Area Core (more than 27% of all startups), followed up with a significant gap by Israel, India, UK and Canada. The main factors that define the level of readiness for autonomous vehicles, and, thus, the geography of diffusion of AVs innovation are regulatory and legislative environment, level of transportation and communication infrastructure development and public perception.