Study: 46% of motorists shun self-driving cars
A new study shows the public may not be all that jazzed about the prospect of self-driving cars, with almost half saying they’d rather drive themselves.
The second annual survey conducted by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute also finds that 94.5% are not comfortable being in a car that doesn’t have a steering wheel, brake pedal and accelerator because it is self-driving.
Given the choice among three levels of automation in a future vehicle — no self-driving, partial self-driving and complete selfdriving — 46% chose no self-driving, followed by 39% for partial and 16% opting for complete selfdriving. Women were slightly more resistant than men to any autonomous features, as 48.4% of women said they want no selfdriving capability compared with 43.1% of men.
In the survey, researchers Brandon Schoettle and Michael Sivak received 618 responses from licensed drivers 18 or older. The survey was conducted using Survey Monkey, an online survey company. A similar, but not identical, study done in 2014 found many of the same reservations.
“This just lays out one of the hurdles that needs to be overcome,” Schoettle said. “People still want to take control, and they’re afraid of truly giving up control.”
The percentage of respondents who said they would prefer no self-driving technology actually rose slightly to 46% from 44% last year. Slightly fewer people this year said they’d be OK with partial autonomy (38.7%) than last year (40.6%).
Schoettle said he doesn’t expect Uber, Google, Apple or any traditional automakers to slow their efforts to achieve safe, but totally autonomous vehicles, but surveys like this can tell them what features people want.