[msb-alumni] Americans still don't trust self-driving cars, poll shows
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 23 May 2020 15:07:10 -0400
BlankI took that survey. I'm obviously a lot more trusting of self-driving
cars than
Americans in general. I think that one guy is right, people will have to ride
in
them to gain an appreciation for them.
Steve
Americans still don't trust self-driving cars, poll shows.
Nearly half of Americans say they would not get in a self-driving taxi,
according to
a poll commissioned by the advocacy group Partners for Automated Vehicle
Education.
The poll, conducted online in February and March by SurveyUSA, found widespread
skepticism and confusion about autonomous vehicles. Of the 1,200 adults
surveyed, 48%
said they would never get in a taxi or ride-share vehicle that was being driven
autonomously, while 21% said they were unsure about it. A fifth of respondents
said
that AVs would never be safe, and another fifth stated incorrectly that it is
possible to own a completely driverless vehicle today. Americans have a lack of
trust
and a lack of knowledge about AVs, said PAVE executive director Tara Andringa.
A
coalition of autonomous vehicle developers and road safety groups, PAVE was
founded
in 2019 with the goal of informing the pubic about self-driving cars. Its
members
include Waymo, Cruise, and Argo three of the leaders on Hyperdrive's recently
published Self-Driving Scorecard as well as the National Safety Council,
Mothers
Against Drunk Driving, and the National Federation of the Blind. The latest
survey
results echo previous polls that suggest a potential problem regarding consumer
acceptance of self-driving cars. Companies are putting huge investment into the
development of AVs, but public opinion polls like this one show great
skepticism,
concern and distrust, said Andringa. The point of PAVE is to help bridge that
gap.
This is the first time that PAVE has surveyed public sentiment around AVs. The
group
plans to use the poll as a baseline to measure changes in sentiment and to help
judge
the efficacy of its education campaign, which includes holding driverless car
demonstrations for the general public. The poll results, said Andringa, bolster
her
belief that giving people access to the technology is the best way to change
opinions. Sixty% of those surveyed said they would have greater trust in AVs if
they
knew more about how the technology works. Oliver Cameron, chief executive
officer of
Voyage, a self-driving car startup and PAVE member, said the poll conforms with
his
experience providing autonomous rides to residents in private retirement
communities
in Florida and California. We've had a few residents who are excited, and they
don't
really care about the fact it's a self-driving car because they saw the birth
of
flight, said Cameron. But for many others, he said, the first ride is like
being on a
roller coaster. There's fear, followed by relief. It's like 'Oh, that wasn't so
bad,'
said Cameron. I think that is going to be most Americans' experience. It will
be an
exciting technology maybe even a scary technology until you try it. And then it
will
just become normal. Perhaps surprisingly, drivers who said they were aware of
bad
publicity around automated driving including the case of the Uber self-driving
car
that killed a pedestrian in Arizona in 2018 and crashes involving Tesla's
Autopilot
were more likely to say AVs are safe. Drivers who reported having
advanced-driver
assistance systems, or ADAS, on their own cars were also more likely to be
optimistic
about self-driving cars. Seventy-three percent of drivers with a forward
collision
alert system on their own cars, for instance, said that safe AVs would be
available
within 10 years, compared to 58% of those without. Yet drivers who say they own
vehicles with ADAS are also more likely to be mistaken about the availability
of
completely driverless vehicles; 59% of drivers who reported having a remote
parking
system, for instance, mistakenly stated that they can buy a self-driving car
today.
The way that some companies advertise their current products leads people to
believe
that cars are capable of more than they are, said Andringa.
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