Self-driving cars are moving from science fiction to showroom fact, or at least to a car summoning platform. Waymo, the self-driving car division of Google, has ordered 82,000 self-driving cars for delivery through 2020. Cruise Automation, from General Motors, is perfecting their own fleet. Countless companies are driving full-throttle into the future. This case explores whether self-driving cars (autonomous vehicles or AVs) are a red ocean or blue ocean opportunity, and explains the difference between technological innovation and value innovation. It will prompt students to think about disruptive innovation and nondisruptive market creation, and why inventors of major technological innovations throughout history have often failed to meaningfully monetize their inventions.
The case has proved to be well suited to a discussion of any or all of the following topics: 1. Value innovation (Blue Ocean Strategy, Six-Paths Framework, Kim & Mauborgne’s ERRC framework, Kim & Mauborgne’s Strategy Canvas); 2. Technology innovation, disruptive innovation (How do firms respond to new technology?) 3. Fundamentals of industry change
- Insurance
- Inventions
- Automation
- Disruptive innovation
- Blue ocean strategy
- Self-driving cars
- Artificial Intelligence
- AI
- Waymo
- Disruption, Autonomous vehicles
- Technology
- Strategy
- Competition
- Q41718