Less than half of Americans (43%) are interested in utilizing autonomous vehicles, down from 53% last year, according to the fourth annual Sharing Economy Index released by Allianz Global Assistance.
The lack of interest is primarily attributed to safety concerns (71% in 2018, compared to 65% in 2017), while other reasons include cost/budget, lack of familiarity and bad publicity.
Recent high-profile crashes involving self-driving cars have dampened the nation’s confidence and excitement over auto-piloted vehicles. In March, two self-driving vehicles were involved in fatal accidents.
Only 52% (down 12 points from 2017) say they are confident that the technology will develop safely enough to consider trading their conventional vehicles for self-driving ones.
Supporting these findings by Ipsos and Allianz Global Assistance is a Pew Research Center survey which found that 39% said they were not sure whether the vehicles would make roads safer or more dangerous, and 87% favored requiring that a human always be behind the wheel to take control if necessary.
----------
Source: Green Car Congress
