Most people in the U.S. are distrustful of autonomous vehicles. That’s the message from AAA’s latest study, which found that a surprising number of people express fear, and many are uncertain about autonomous technology.
AAA found that 66 percent of drivers are afraid of autonomous vehicles, and 25 percent are uncertain about having them on the roads. Greg Brannon, AAA’s director of automotive engineering, said, “There has been an increase in consumer fear over the past few years. Given the numerous and well-publicized incidents involving current vehicle technologies – it’s not surprising that people are apprehensive about their safety.”
Driver attitudes about driverless vehicles have always leaned skeptical, but the number of people expressing fear jumped last year and will remain elevated in 2024. In 2021, 54 percent of people said they were afraid, which grew to 55 percent in 2022. The number spiked to 68 percent in 2023 and fell only slightly heading into 2024.
Though people are skeptical, AAA found that drivers are still interested in driver assistance tech with autonomous features. Most – 65 percent – said they wanted reverse automatic emergency braking, while 63 percent said they wanted forward automatic emergency braking. That said, AAA noted that people generally have too much faith in the systems and believe they’re much more capable than they really are,
AAA also said that advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) should give drivers a higher level of awareness instead of tricking them into thinking the car is driving itself. The organization also rightly pointed out that there are no self-driving cars on sale, which is a safety concern when 40 percent of drivers believe they can buy one today.
[Image: Sundry Photography via Shutterstock]
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