Even though car manufacturers go out of their way to implement autonomous tech, they seem to overlook one important matter: People don’t want it that badly.
A recent study entitled “Motorists’ Preferences for Different Levels of Vehicle Automation” conducted by the University of Michigan Sustainable Worldwide Transportation and published in May 2016, shows that more than four out of five people prefer not to ride in fully autonomous cars.
According to Autonews, the survey, developed to examine motorists’ preferences among levels of vehicle automation (hence the name), including preferences for interacting with and overall concern about riding in self driving vehicles, yielded complete responses from 618 licensed drivers from the U.S.
The results showed that “the most frequent preference for vehicle automation continues to be for no self-driving capability, followed by partially self-driving vehicles, with completely self-driving vehicles being the least preferred choice”, as the report states.
Moreover, concern for riding in self-driving automobiles remains higher for full autonomous variants, with respondents wanting to manually control the vehicles when desired.
The report concluded that despite the increase media coverage of self-driving vehicles, the public opinion has remained consistent over the course of two years:
“Overall public opinion has been remarkably consistent over the two years that this survey has been conducted. The general patterns of responses have not changed over the course of these two surveys, despite the increased media coverage of self-driving vehicles.”
Automakers have become more and more vocal about implementing self-driving technology on the road by the end of the decade, with experts suggesting that this will greatly reduce the risk of traffic accidents. However, judging by the result of the survey, the motoring industry has its work cut out.
PHOTO GALLERY
