Intel Predicts Autonomous Driving Will Spur New 'Passenger Economy' Worth $7 Trillion

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- Intel predicts a new “Passenger Economy” will emerge to support the idle time when drivers become riders
- The economic opportunity will grow from $800 billion to $7 trillion as autonomous vehicles become mainstream
- Mobility-as-a-Service will disrupt long-held patterns of car ownership, maintenance, operations and usage

Today, Intel Corporation revealed the findings from a new study that explores the yet-to-be-realized economic potential when today’s drivers become idle passengers. Coined the “Passenger Economy” by Intel and prepared by analyst firm Strategy Analytics, the study predicts an explosive economic trajectory growing from $800 billion in 2035 to $7 trillion by 2050.

History has proven that technology is the catalyst for massive societal transformation and that businesses need to adapt or risk failure, or worse, extinction. New digital business models ushered in by personal computing, the internet, ubiquitous connectivity and smartphones gave birth to whole new economies. Autonomous driving will do the same.

“Companies should start thinking about their autonomous strategy now,” said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. “Less than a decade ago, no one was talking about the potential of a soon-to-emerge app or sharing economy because no one saw it coming. This is why we started the conversation around the Passenger Economy early, to wake people up to the opportunity streams that will emerge when cars become the most powerful mobile data generating devices we use and people swap driving for riding.”

Autonomous driving and smart city technologies will enable the new Passenger Economy, gradually reconfiguring entire industries and inventing new ones thanks to the time and cognitive surplus it will unlock.

Read the Report: Accelerating the Future: The Economic Impact of the Emerging Passenger Economy

“Not unlike the space race of the 1960s, today’s announcement is a rallying cry to the world to put its best minds on this challenge,” said Greg Lindsay, urbanist and mobility futurist. “The future of mobility, economic advancement and the emergence of new growth opportunities like the Passenger Economy demand ongoing dialogue. I am excited to partner with Intel, take this discussion on the road and look at solutions through the lens of the diverse industries that will shape our future – from automakers to investors and policy makers to startups.”

The new report frames the value of the economic opportunity through both a consumer and business lens and begins to build use cases designed to enable decision-makers to develop actionable change strategies.

Press Kit: Autonomous Driving at Intel

“Autonomous technology will drive change across a range of industries and define a new landscape, the first green shoots of which will appear in the business-to-business sector,” said study co-author Harvey Cohen, president, Strategy Analytics. “The emergence of pilotless vehicle options will first appear in developed markets and will reinvent the package delivery and long-haul transportation sectors. This will relieve driver shortages around the world and account for two-thirds of initial projected revenues.”

The research firm further points out that autonomously operated vehicle commercialization will gain steam by 2040 – generating an increasingly large share of the projected value and heralding the emergence of instantaneously personalized services.

Key report highlights include:


Business use of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) is expected to generate $3 trillion in revenues, or 43 percent of the total passenger economy.
Consumer use of Mobility-as-a-Service offerings is expected to account for $3.7 trillion in revenue, or nearly 55 percent of the total passenger economy.
$200 billion of revenue is expected to be generated from rising consumer use of new innovative applications and services that will emerge as pilotless vehicle services expand and evolve.
Conservatively, 585,000 lives can be saved due to self-driving vehicles in the era of the Passenger Economy from 2035 to 2045.
Self-driving vehicles are expected to free more than 250 million hours of consumers’ commuting time per year in the most congested cities in the world.
Reductions in public safety costs related to traffic accidents could amount to more than $234 billion over the Passenger Economy era from 2035-2045.
Highlights of future scenarios explored in the study include:

Car-venience: From onboard beauty salons to touch-screen tables for remote collaboration, fast-casual dining, remote vending, mobile health care clinics and treatment pods, and even platooning pod hotels, vehicles will become transportation experience pods.
Movable movies: Media and content producers will develop custom content formats to match short and long travel times.
Location-based advertising: Location-based advertising will become more keenly relevant, and advertisers and agencies will be presented with a new realm of possibilities for presenting content brands and location.


Mobility-as-a-perk: Employers, office buildings, apartment complexes, university campuses and housing estates will offer MaaS to add value to and distinguish their offer from competitors or as part of their compensation package.


The Passenger Economy report was sponsored by Intel and developed by Strategy Analytics. To read the full report and see additional materials, visit the Intel newsroom’s Autonomous Driving Press Kit.

About Strategy Analytics

Strategy Analytics, Inc. provides the competitive edge with advisory services, consulting and actionable market intelligence for emerging technology, mobile and wireless, digital consumer and automotive electronics companies. With offices in North America, Europe and Asia, Strategy Analytics delivers insights for enterprise success. www.StrategyAnalytics.com.

About Greg Lindsay

Greg Lindsay is an urban mobility futurist and co-author of Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next. He is senior fellow of the New Cities Foundation, where he leads the Connected Mobility Initiative, and a non-resident senior fellow of the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Foresight Initiative. He is also a visiting scholar at New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management.