Now that the prospect of self-driving cars is approaching a point where they will soon be commercially viable in the near future, and most manufacturers (along with Google) have announced their intention to enter this soon to be created niche, one begins to wonder if the established order in the industry will stay the same, and which cars from what manufacturers people will go for.
One study gives a simplistic answer to the problem, narrowing down the choice to either GM or Google, then using the focus group technique to come up with an answer. Surprisingly, it’s not the established automaker that people would prefer buying form, and it’s Google that comes out on top in terms of preference.
The study was carried out by an audit and advisory firm, called KPMG, which, according to Wired, questioned drivers from Los Angeles, Chicago, Illinois and Iselin, New Jersey, and found that the further away from LA you get, the less popular the idea of self-drivers is – it never drops lower than 6 out of 10, though, so the idea is still what we’d call popular.
When asked to rank the companies involved, the respondents of which one third owned a premium car ranked Google and Apple at 8 out of 10, with the highest ranking automaker to be featured being Mercedes-Benz, achieving a score of 7.75, while Chevrolet and Nissan got a round rating of 5.
This proves that of the extensive media coverage surrounding Google’s autonomous car testing, their pushing for law changes and future plans, have not gone unnoticed by the general public – people are now waiting to see what Google comes up with and they seem very confident that the internet giant won’t disappoint, and neither will Apple.
By Andrei Nedelea
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