By Barry Cox M arketers tend to use a push or pull strategy when offering products to consumers and right now one of the biggest push attempts in history is being design and everyone is in the game. Automobile manufac- turers, Hi-Tech companies and others all believe self-driving cars are where it’s at, unfortunately for them; drivers don’t appear to be the slightest bit interested in them. A new study out of the University of Michigan backs up the theory that most motorists were clearly not ready to give up the steering wheel. Just under 50% of the motorists in the study said they want nothing to do with self-driving cars given what they understand the concept and technology today. Over a third of respondents are open to partial control being given to a computer, while only 15% of the motorists were willing to give total control over to a self-driving computerized car. The largest point of contention is the elimination of the steering wheel and pedals in an assisted ride machine. Again the majority of respondents have no desire to lose those two key features which ironically is exactly what many of the high-tech firms want to do, this shows that the industry is disconnected from the consumer and potential demand for a self-driving car. The research team at the University of Michigan has been repeating the study since 2014. They report that the results have been extremely consis- tent despite efforts by many firms to market the benefits of self driven cars. While many would see this as a negative, researchers say it’s a building block in that it shows potential manufacturers where drivers have concerns. Today the position is clear, people still want control of their cars and they are afraid to trust technology as their driver. Canadians are having a hard time seeing the appeal of self-driven autos, as a recent study by GFK research suggests only a quarter of Canucks have any interest in self-driving cars. As with the internet, cell phones and shopping online familiarity makes a differ- ence and with time drivers will be more willing to give up the wheel or at least set the stand or comfort level they are willing to accept for a self-driving car, but I think this is going to be a tough campaign to win over the majority of motor- ists and you can all but forget cracking the marketing with driving enthusiasts.
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JUNE 2016 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS
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