The autonomous vehicle: can one rationally manage a fantasy engineering project?

The autonomous vehicle is a priority in the innovation strategies of all the major car manufacturers and the principal equipment manufacturers. Above all else, this innovation forces companies to come to terms with important uncertainties. These include a technological uncertainty, because we are still far from having the technology necessary to drive safely and automatically at all times; an uncertainty due to the ecosystem, because this field involves very different sectors in the value chain of driven cars; and a market uncertainty, because the value of autonomy still raises many questions because of its important, associated additional costs. Faced with these three uncertainties, how can one manage a project which aims to ensure a sensible understanding of these different dimensions, and to avoid the pitfalls associated with technology push ? Christophe Midler discusses the lessons learned from his research carried out in the context of Renault-ParisTech’s programme at the Sustainable Mobility Institute (Institut de la mobilité durable).