LOS ANGELES — According to an article on the Los Angeles Times website, Kelley Blue Book recently conducted a survey of 2,264 U.S. residents to determine their views on self-driving vehicles; the results were not favorable.
Eighty percent of participants said that people should “always have the option to drive themselves,” the article noted, while 64 percent said they need to control their vehicle and 62 percent added that they enjoy driving.
One-third of respondents said that they would never purchase a fully autonomous vehicle — one without pedals or a steering wheel, the article added.
What this means for companies, such as Google, Uber, Ford and GM, who are actively developing and testing this technology and have been recently backed by the government, may not be good, the article stated.
“The industry is talking a lot about self-driving vehicles these days… [but] much is still unknown about fully autonomous vehicles, including how they would react in emergency situations,” said Karl Brauer, an analyst at Kelley Blue Book.
The survey breaks down cars into levels of autonomy, from Level 0, where a human is in full control, to Level 5, where a human has absolutely no control, the article noted.
Most vehicles today are Levels 1 or 2 because they include functions such as cruise control or anti-lock brakes, the article stated, but the survey found that most people responded best to the idea of a Level 4 car: one that can drive autonomously but has the option to be controlled by a human.
“Automakers will need to address hesitant drivers in order to be successful,” Brauer said.
Read the full article here.
