Attitudes towards driverless cars shift into a different gear

Driver Guides  Electric Vehicles 

It’s either another step towards the inevitable decline of human civilisation or it’s just another step in the continuing development of human civilisation. In reality though, it’s unlikely to be either of those options. Driverless cars might seem like an odd idea to many, but no more than the concept of the “horseless carriage” itself would have been to their ancestors just a handful of generations ago. And if a recent survey is any indication, attitudes towards driverless cars are gradually becoming more accepting.

New research commissioned by leading vehicle history check and valuation specialists HPI, has revealed that over a fifth of UK road users (22%) would trust a driverless car and be comfortable travelling in one.

In May this year, Parliament passed the Automated Vehicles Act (AV Act) into law, establishing the legal framework for driverless cars. The AV Act sets out all the safety standards, data security, and insurance requirements necessary for driverless cars to operate on UK roads.

Matt Freeman, Managing Consultant at HPI, said: “The AV Act aims to improve road safety by reducing human error, which is estimated to contribute to 88% of road collisions. Driverless cars could save lives, reduce traffic, and lessen the longstanding reliance on people to transport freight. Our latest research into public attitudes towards driverless cars presents some insightful findings, and it seems that people are getting increasingly used to the idea.”

He's clearly got a point when you look at the numbers. The research polled the views of over 2,000 UK adults, and the results don’t seem to suggest the idea of autonomous vehicles is particularly outlandish as far as the general public is concerned.

Attitudes towards driverless tech

In terms of the technology itself, HPI’s research discovered that 15% of people think introducing driverless cars will result in safer roads, with 22% believing that roads will be no more or less safe than they are at present.

From the perspective of pedestrians, 20% of respondents expressed no concerns about driverless cars on the roads. Almost a quarter (24%) of respondents said they felt excited rather than fearful when describing their attitudes towards driverless cars, and 8% even went so far as to state they are sufficiently confident in the technology that they don’t even need manufacturers to carry out any more research and development to convince them that driverless cars are safe for road use.

There are obviously some differences in attitude across the respondents, and in many cases these fall into the sort of categories you might expect to see.

As is usually the way with any new technology, younger generations are much more willing to embrace the idea, with 33% of 18–26 year olds at ease with driverless cars compared with the 55-64 (17%) and over 65 (12%) demographics.

Men (28%) appear to be more trusting of driverless cars than women (16%), and almost a third of men (30%) expressed genuine excitement at the prospect of driverless cars on the roads compared with 18% of the women who responded. Of all the respondents, more men (25%) than women (12%) also stated they would consider buying a car that could drive itself while they slept or carried out another task – a result that may have also inadvertently proven that women genuinely are better at multitasking.

Results also differ along geographical boundaries. Londoners (21%) are the most trusting of the technology – probably because sometimes it’s almost impossible to move in London anyway so it makes no difference - followed by the East of England (19%) and West Midlands (18%). When it comes to the individual nations, it turns out the Welsh (9%) trust driverless technology the least while 18% of Scots said they would happily trust a driverless car.

The research also indicates that there may be a reason for the differing attitudes.

42% of respondents already drive a car with semi-autonomous features such as lane assist, automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control or active driving assistance.

This is essentially the same technology that would feature in an autonomous vehicle so if you’re already using it you’re clearly going to be more comfortable with it. A fifth (21%) of men said they use the semi-autonomous features in their car all the time, compared with just 6% of women.

In the same way as air conditioning or a stereo was once considered a luxury but is now an expectation, most of us have become used to our cars being equipped with the latest driver assistance systems.

The technology already exists whether you choose to use it or not, and recent advances in the AI which underpins the decision-making process that cars have to go through to drive themselves has also taken us one step closer to autonomous vehicles becoming a reality.

There is still plenty of development and research to be done before autonomous vehicles become an everyday sight, and clearly there are many people who would still require some convincing before climbing into a driverless car, but with the legal framework in place manufacturers now have a target to aim for.

With the government already supporting the development and testing of the new technology through trials and pilot projects, some experts are even predicting we could see the first fully autonomous cars on the road some time in 2026.

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