About 21 million autonomous vehicles will be sold globally by 2035, with the US taking the lead, according to a new projection from IHS Automotive.
Deployment in the US will start with various autonomous vehicles in 2020, which will increase to around 4.5 million vehicles by 2035.
IHS predicts that about 5.7 million vehicles with some level of autonomy will be sold in China by 2035. In Western Europe, just more than 3 million autonomous vehicles are expected to be sold.
Japan and South Korea combined are estimated to have nearly 1.2 million vehicles with some level of autonomy on the road by 2035.
IHS Automotive research director Egil Juliussen said: "Global sales of autonomous vehicles will reach nearly 600,000 units in 2025.
"Our new forecast reflects a 43 percent compound annual growth rate between 2025 and 2035 - a decade of substantial growth, as driverless and self-driving cars alike are more widely adopted in all key global automotive markets."
IHS also forecasts that there could be potential risks for autonomous vehicles through technology and software reliability and cybersecurity.
But, it is confident that with relentless improvements in technology, these potential risks can be minimised significantly.
Juliussen said: "The future fleets of driverless vehicles will provide mobility services for anyone and anything, creating exciting and new opportunities for the automotive industry.
"Increasing competition from the high-tech and other industries is accelerating the auto industry's autonomous software and cybersecurity development efforts."
