In-car Entertainment Market Projected to Soar to £36bn by 2021, Says Futuresource

As people’s views on car ownership and driving change, and with tech companies driving the evolution of self-driving cars, the global in-car entertainment (ICE) market is expected to hit $36 billion by 2021, according to Futuresource Consulting.

“The boundary between our living rooms and cars is getting blurry,” says James Manning Smith, a research analyst at Futuresource Consulting. “The excitement around in-car entertainment has been building for a while, and what we consider traditional car entertainment is evolving. We’re headed towards a new era that will change how we think about our time in cars.”

With ride-sharing and car-sharing becoming more popular, folks are spending less time driving and more time enjoying entertainment and media from their cars. Improved in-car entertainment systems now let you integrate personal mobile devices, making it easier to use smartphones and tablets while on the road.

Thanks to more and better screens, both for drivers and passengers, and greater in-car connectivity, including wifi services and the development of systems like Apple CarPlay and Google/Android Auto, the ICE market is growing from $28 billion in 2016 to $36 billion by 2021.

“With less need for human input in driving, there’s a bigger opportunity to utilize travel time for leisure,” says Simon Bryant, associate director at Futuresource Consulting. “Cars will soon be seen more as entertainment hubs rather than just transportation. Personal devices will work smoothly in cars, adapting to the driver’s needs. Our transportation will connect seamlessly with our homes, cities, smartphones, and other personal electronics, making our transitions between environments smoother.”

Higher levels of connectivity, the rise of driverless cars, and an increasing number of vehicles benefit ICE hardware and service providers. Futuresource predicts that the number of connected cars will jump from 30 million globally at the end of 2016 to over 200 million by 2020. In the same period, the value of connected services—like telematics, infotainment, and safety—will soar to over $100 billion.

“Expect more concierge services like on-demand fuel delivery to your home, mobile payment for tolls and gas, usage-based insurance, and smart parking,” adds Bryant. “Driver and passenger personalization will become smarter through cloud services, with voice, gesture, and motion control becoming common, alongside augmented reality, biofeedback, and integration with wearables and smart homes. Human-machine interface systems, once the stuff of science fiction, are becoming reality.”

By 2020, electric and hybrid vehicles are projected to account for 10% of car production, shaking up the competitive landscape with companies like Tesla, Google, Faraday Future, and even Apple entering the mass car production market.

Although significant changes in personal transport are anticipated, fully autonomous driving won’t make a big impact right away. Futuresource projects that autonomous cars will hit the consumer market by 2020, with production ramping up to about 10% of all vehicles by 2035.

“As cars transform into the fifth screen, companies like Apple, facing slower growth in mobile devices, and Samsung, which recently acquired Harman, will eagerly join the automotive race,” notes Bryant. “Keep an eye on the Dreamworks-Honda collaboration and watch for Netflix, Twentieth Century Fox, and Warner Brothers aiming to grab their share of the market.”