A study done by ORC International for the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, and put forth by Forbes takes a pretty adamant stance against the possibility of early adoption of autonomous vehicles by the traditionalist mass-market consumer public.
The numbers it has to back this up are very suggestive, even if the limited pool of only 1,000 adults questioned may not be completely accurate as per the entire country, they are revealing nevertheless.
Findings indicated that just 18 percent of those asked were ready to wholeheartedly buy a self-driving car, while only 22 percent reportedly felt confident enough to allow a loved one to take a ride in such a vehicle. This leaves more than two thirds of those questioned in the skeptic’s corner, despite the fact that when queried separately about each safety gadget they would like to have, the results were radically different.
Around 88 percent were willing to part with some extra cash to get lane departure warning fitted to their new car, while 77 percent admitted to being tempted by the idea of AEB (autonomous emergency braking). Another feature that seemed fairly popular was adaptive cruise control, and it was chosen by 70 percent, almost double the number of people that would go for a self-parking system.
We found it unusual that with such widespread skepticism rooted in fear of malfunctioning technology, 13 percent of respondents still said they would be willing to take a quick snooze behind the wheel, and have complete faith in the car and it getting them to their destination safely.
By Andrei Nedelea
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