Autonomous vehicles
a stranger. By reading the situation around you (such as how aggressively the driver is accelerating, how confident they look when driving at a busy junction, how angry they get at other drivers, etc.), you can feel comfortable in the sense that you know and understand what is occurring in your vicinity. This completely changes when being driven by an autonomous vehicle however, as there is no physical driver that you can read off. When the driver brakes suddenly, most people look at the driver and the surrounding vehicles out the window, but there would be no one to turn to in this situation when being a passenger in a self-driving car. This could leave the passenger feeling helpless, and maybe even alone to some extent, another possible reason why autonomy might not appeal to the public. The 2 charts
below confirm this:
106 out of 115 respondents said that they would feel safe when being driven in a taxi (before the pandemic). However, 94 people would feel uncomfortable being driven by a self-driving car. This graphic explicitly demonstrates the barriers that manufacturers will have to face when producing their autonomous fleets, as the public may not show an interest. The fact that 82% of respondents would feel uncomfortable being a passenger in a self-driving car means that companies will have to pour resources and time into informing the public and trying to persuade people to buy their product.
Th e first option reads: ‘Reduced risk of infection (from COVID - 19 and/ or other pathogen).’ The second option reads: ‘Read more about autonomy in the news.’
The options are as follows: - Think that human error is greater than machine error - I trust the technology - I trust the company/ manufacturer - Always have felt that human drivers are safer - Do not trust algorithms and/ or software - Someone could hack the self-driving vehicle - Have not read any updates on autonomy - Other reason(s)
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