There has been a lot of talk around autonomous vehicles lately, with Google testing its self-driving cars and Apple reportedly building its own, but that talk is about to die down. According to Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies report for 2015, autonomous vehicles have reached the peak of inflated expectations and are expected to plateau in five to 10 years.
“As enterprises continue the journey to becoming digital businesses, identifying and employing the right technologies at the right time will be critical,” said Betsy Burton, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “The Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies is the broadest aggregate Gartner Hype Cycle, featuring technologies that are the focus of attention because of particularly high levels of interest, and those that Gartner believes have the potential for significant impact.”
In addition to autonomous vehicles, Gartner believes advanced analytics with self-service delivery, the Internet of Things, speech-to-speech translation and machine learning have also reached their peaks.
Heading down Gartner’s Hype Cycle slope on its way to the “trough of disillusionment” are wearables, crypto currencies, consumer 3D printing and natural language question answering.
The Hype Cycle focuses on three stages: digital marketing, digital business, and autonomous systems. “Although we have categorized each of the technologies on the Hype Cycle into one of the digital business stages, enterprises should not limit themselves to these technology groupings,” said Burton. “Many early adopters have embraced quite advanced technologies—for example, autonomous vehicles or smart advisors—while they continue to improve nexus-related areas, such as mobile apps.”
