Aston Martin Is Ready For The World Of Shared Autonomous Vehicles

Aston Martin says it is prepared for a radical industry shift which could see shared autonomous vehicles become a popular transport method in cities across the world.

While speaking at the Driving the Future event in London recently, Aston Martin chief planning officer Nikki Rimmington said the customer base for Aston Martin and Lagonda will change dramatically in the future, Autocar reports.

According to Rimmington, factors such as a growing base of millennials and the increasing purchasing power of women will drastically alter Aston Martin’s customer base. She also said that increased urbanization, as well as more mobile and aging populations, will have an impact on the brand.

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“If you look at autonomy it opens up all sorts of possibilities, of which one of the most appealing is being able to get around faster if the systems are there to support it. Owners could live more remotely but travel in faster,” Rimmington said.

“But we might also consider opportunities around shared use of cars. Attitudes are changing: for some, owning a car that sits there stationary, losing value most of the time is less desirable, and the prospect of getting in a car that might be a bit untidy from the previous occupant isn’t a deal-breaker. That could be an opportunity.”

Upon hearing about shared, autonomous vehicles, one might think about affordable vehicles deployed en masse across cities and wonder which Aston could suit such purposes. That’s not the case, though; Rimmington claims the British car manufacturer could make its presence felt through fleets of high-end autonomous vehicles.

“In a busier urban environment than today, it might make sense for high-end hotels or businesses to run fleets of autonomous cars, for instance. Those vehicles could still be hugely personalized to the brands they represent, as we’re used to at Aston Martin, so there is absolutely a role for us to play,” she said.

While Aston Martin is currently developing an SUV and a new range of supercars and hypercars, Lagonda intends on launching both an all-electric sedan and SUV to be revealed in the coming couple of years – and it’s those that could put it in good stead in the not-so-distant autonomous automotive landscape.