Exploring the Growth of Disruptive Technology in the Digital Age from the Perspective of Patents: The Evolution in the Field of Autonomous Vehicles

Currently, digitalisation is accelerating its integration with various industries, and disruptive technologies are constantly emerging. This not only brings about a comprehensive innovation in the technological paradigm, but also has a wide and profound impact on human economic and social development. In this study, the complex system evolution driven by disruptive technology in the digital era is clarified. A hybrid framework based on patent analysis is proposed, which shows the new paradigm from aspects such as market competition, technical and functional systems, and the external ecosystem. The autonomous vehicle is selected as a case. The results show that the transformation of the complex system driven by disruptive technology is distinctive. It can be found that a large number of new entrants and incumbent players with former advantages jointly promoted the open knowledge flow. The complex functional system leads to the fact that the disruption process is not achieved in one step, which provides an opportunity for incumbents to deal with crises. The high system complexity requires a large number of radical inventions, and contending branch paths will emerge, which is underpinned by further intensification of competition. In addition, the government has played an important role in building an open external environment through the dynamic combination of diversified policy tools. The key to implementation is based on the technology life cycle. This study proposes a new approach to analysing disruptive technologies, which not only enriches the theory of disruptive innovation but also provides a template for understanding industrial upgrading in the digital era.