Most People Still Don’t Trust Self-Driving Cars, Study Says
After all, humans know more than machines…right?
A lot of people have expressed hesitation towards autonomous vehicles, but it has been unclear exactly how much they were worried about them—until recently, at least. Gartner Consumer Trends in Automotive did a study involving 1,500 people from the United States and Germany on how comfortable they were with using an autonomous vehicle. According to the study, 55 percent said they were not comfortable using a fully-autonomous vehicle, as they felt the inability to take over was a huge issue.
Study participants felt uneasy regarding computer reliability and the potential for a malfunction. Gartner research director Mike Ramsey told CNBC, "The big issue is that people are afraid of being in vehicles where they cannot exercise some control."
On a more realistic evaluation, 70 percent of participants agreed they would be comfortable using a partially-autonomous vehicle, where the user could take over when desired or necessary. This seems like a happy medium for us The Drive staff, as it means we get to still enjoy driving when we want to without having to chug along in traffic.
