Millennials receptive to autonomous technology
It’s no secret that many, if not most, automakers are well on the way to developing autonomous cars, and regulatory agencies worldwide are preparing to accommodate them. But there’s one stakeholder from which little has been heard yet: the customer.
Do people really want autonomous cars? Will they be ready to buy them when they do arrive?
While there is plenty of interest in the concept, recent studies suggest that there’s also a lot of trepidation about actually committing to them at a personal level — and a reluctance to pay for what they’re likely to cost.
In a survey conducted by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) last year, about two-thirds of respondents in the U.S. said they’d be at least slightly interested in owning a self-driving vehicle.
But in the same study, 88.8 per cent of respondents said they’d be at least somewhat concerned about driving or riding in a vehicle with self-driving technology, and 26.1 per cent said they’d be very concerned.
That question was based on a driver being able to take over control, if necessary.
When asked about riding in a fully autonomous vehicle with no driver controls available, 96.2 per cent expressed concern, and 60.1 per cent said they’d be very concerned.
As comfortable as millennials are with all their digital paraphernalia, they are less comfortable behind the wheel of a car
So, there’s still some selling to do before people are ready for fully autonomous cars.
But how receptive they are may depend very much on their age and comfort level with today’s technology in general.
That survey encompassed a broad range of respondents, ranging in age from 18 to more than 60.
Another more recent study, conducted for Ford, focused only on Millennials: those born between the late 1980s and the early 2000s.
As comfortable as they may be with all their digital paraphernalia, they are far less comfortable behind the wheel of a car.
In fact, in terms of things they fear, other drivers topped their list, with 88 per cent ranking them as a major dread, ahead of such common fear factors as spiders, snakes and even death.
Millennials’ specific driving fears included driving in low-visibility situations like bad weather, snowy or icy roads, backing onto a busy street, monitoring blind spots, not knowing where they’re going, parallel parking and drifting out of their driving lane.
Not surprisingly, then, they were highly receptive to technologies that address those fears and take away some of their more demanding driving tasks.
Things like blind-spot warning, rearview cameras, park assist, adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assist.
And more than half (52 per cent) said they’d be “as comfortable or more comfortable” in an autonomous vehicle.
While that digital generation may be the most open to the concept of autonomy, older drivers also like those driver-assist technologies, which are in fact stepping-stones toward autonomous vehicles. So, they’re likely to get there, if not as quickly.
Perhaps just as important, according to the recent 2015 U.S. Tech Choice Study conducted by J.D. Power and Associates, Gen Y customers (born 1977-1994) are the least sensitive to the price of such technologies and are willing to pay for them. Freelance writer Gerry Malloy is a frequent contributor to Toronto Star Wheels. For more Toronto Star Wheels stories, go to thestar.com/autos, To reach Wheels Editor Norris McDonald: