Steering solo
Would you buy a driverless car? Right now, most people don’t expect to have one.
Most Americans think autonomous cars will be quite common within 15 years, though 74 percent of people say they don’t expect to have one, and two-thirds say they wouldn’t want to walk or ride a bicycle anywhere near one.
Confusing? That’s in part because the results come from three different recent surveys on Americans’ attitudes toward autonomous cars.
Taken together, however, they underscore widespread misgivings about the vehicles people expect will be among them shortly, the challenge automakers face in marketing them, and a need for safety reassurances from federal regulators.
Most Americans — 70 percent, according to an HNTB survey released last week — have softened to the idea that driverless cars factor in their future, whether they plan to ride in one or not.
Developments that portend the future of autonomous cars came in a double dose recently. First, a prominent technology investment firm — SoftBank Vision Fund — promised to invest $2.25 billion in General Motors’ autonomous vehicle operation. Then Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced it would provide “up to 62,000” Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans to Waymo, the pioneering autonomous-car company.
With several dozen companies working to develop autonomous cars or put them on the road, the vehicles’ presence is inevitable. But before the cars “become commonplace within 15 years,” as the HNTB survey says, a massive change in attitude will be necessary.
“Some of the things that popped out at me in all (three surveys) was that the majority of people are currently unwilling to ride in an automated vehicle,” said Jim Barbaresso, who leads the Intelligent Transportation Systems Practice at HNTB, an infrastructure solutions firm.
In the HNTB survey, 55 percent of people said they wouldn’t ride in an autonomous vehicle.
A survey last month by AAA put that number at 73 percent, and one by Consumer Watchdog that came out three days later had nearly the same result at 74 percent.