The automotive industry continues to be a hotbed of innovation, with activity driven by the growth of connected and autonomous vehicles and the absolute need of ‘reliability’ to make them commercially viable, as well as the growing importance of technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and cybersecurity. In the last three years alone, there have been over 1.2 million patents filed and granted in the automotive industry, according to GlobalData’s report on Artificial intelligence in Automotive: AI-assisted fault monitoring. Buy the report here.

However, not all innovations are equal and nor do they follow a constant upward trend. Instead, their evolution takes the form of an S-shaped curve that reflects their typical lifecycle from early emergence to accelerating adoption, before finally stabilising and reaching maturity.

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Identifying where a particular innovation is on this journey, especially those that are in the emerging and accelerating stages, is essential for understanding their current level of adoption and the likely future trajectory and impact they will have.

290+ innovations will shape the automotive industry

According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which plots the S-curve for the automotive industry using innovation intensity models built on over 619,000 patents, there are 290+ innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry.

Within the emerging innovation stage, manufacturability analysis, autonomous parking, and LiDAr for vehicle anti-collision are disruptive technologies that are in the early stages of application and should be tracked closely. Speed profile estimation, smart light dimmers, and driver drowsiness detection are some of the accelerating innovation areas, where adoption has been steadily increasing. Among maturing innovation areas are road slope estimation and adaptive cruise control, which are now well established in the industry.

Innovation S-curve for artificial intelligence in the automotive industry

AI-assisted fault monitoring is a key innovation area in artificial intelligence

The AI detection system is able to foresee system failures in real time. The fault detector's brain functions as an artificial neural network (ANN). The detection system is tested through simulations.

GlobalData’s analysis also uncovers the companies at the forefront of each innovation area and assesses the potential reach and impact of their patenting activity across different applications and geographies. According to GlobalData, there are 60+ companies, spanning technology vendors, established automotive companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of AI-assisted fault monitoring.

Key players in AI-assisted fault monitoring – a disruptive innovation in the automotive industry

‘Application diversity’ measures the number of different applications identified for each relevant patent and broadly splits companies into either ‘niche’ or ‘diversified’ innovators.

‘Geographic reach’ refers to the number of different countries each relevant patent is registered in and reflects the breadth of geographic application intended, ranging from ‘global’ to ‘local’.

Patent volumes related to AI-assisted fault monitoring

Company Total patents (2021 - 2023) Premium intelligence on the world's largest companies
International Business Machines 186 Unlock Company Profile
People.ai 142 Unlock Company Profile
Microsoft 103 Unlock Company Profile
Aurora Labs 83 Unlock Company Profile
Oracle 66 Unlock Company Profile
Dell Technologies 64 Unlock Company Profile
NEC 56 Unlock Company Profile
Qualcomm 49 Unlock Company Profile
Intel 40 Unlock Company Profile
MondayCom 38 Unlock Company Profile
Hewlett Packard Enterprise 36 Unlock Company Profile
Alphabet 34 Unlock Company Profile
Accenture 31 Unlock Company Profile
Hitachi 26 Unlock Company Profile
Samsung Group 25 Unlock Company Profile
Capital One Financial 23 Unlock Company Profile
Toshiba 21 Unlock Company Profile
SAP 19 Unlock Company Profile
Juniper Networks 18 Unlock Company Profile
Drishti Technologies 18 Unlock Company Profile
Applied Materials 16 Unlock Company Profile
Deutsche Telekom 15 Unlock Company Profile
Mitsubishi Electric 15 Unlock Company Profile
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone 15 Unlock Company Profile
ServiceNow 14 Unlock Company Profile
Desktone 14 Unlock Company Profile
Amazon.com 14 Unlock Company Profile
MBDA France 14 Unlock Company Profile
Sophos Holdings 13 Unlock Company Profile
Huawei Investment Holding 12 Unlock Company Profile
Cisco Systems 12 Unlock Company Profile
Ab Initio Software 12 Unlock Company Profile
Atos 10 Unlock Company Profile
BMC Software 10 Unlock Company Profile
SoftBank Group 10 Unlock Company Profile
Datameer 10 Unlock Company Profile
Furukawa 10 Unlock Company Profile
HP 9 Unlock Company Profile
Tata Sons Pvt 9 Unlock Company Profile
Xerox Holdings 9 Unlock Company Profile
New Relic 9 Unlock Company Profile
Scaled Inference 9 Unlock Company Profile
Robert Bosch Stiftung 8 Unlock Company Profile
Boeing 8 Unlock Company Profile
KDDI 8 Unlock Company Profile
Lumen Technologies 7 Unlock Company Profile
eBay 7 Unlock Company Profile
Toyota Motor 7 Unlock Company Profile
Western Digital 7 Unlock Company Profile
Verizon Patent And Licensing 7 Unlock Company Profile

Source: GlobalData Patent Analytics

Microsoft is one of the leading patent files in AI-assisted fault monitoring systems. The company offers several solutions in auto industry spanning from supporting automotive engineering simulation workloads in auto manufacturing to vehicle-based solutions. Some other key patent files in the automotive industry includes People.ai, IBM, Oracle, and Aurora Labs.

To further understand how artificial intelligence is disrupting the automotive industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research report on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Automotive.

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GlobalData, the leading provider of industry intelligence, provided the underlying data, research, and analysis used to produce this article.

GlobalData’s Patent Analytics tracks patent filings and grants from official offices around the world. Textual analysis and official patent classifications are used to group patents into key thematic areas and link them to specific companies across the world’s largest industries.