More Than Half of Consumers Wouldn't Ride in a Self-Driving Car | Edmunds


More than half of consumers wouldn't even consider taking a ride in a self-driving car, according to a new study from research firm Gartner.
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More than half of consumers wouldn't even consider taking a ride in a self-driving car, according to a new study from research firm Gartner.
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Ok. I am being facetious. I also realize that driver error is the primary cause of crashes and autonomous vehicles would statistically be much safer. But there is a belief that a person would rather take responsibility for their own safety and not rely on a machine. Of course, then there are all those other idiots out there who should not even have licenses. In the meantime we are heading towards Level 3 autonomous vehicles which is truly the most terrifying. Think of the picture of the guy driving a Tesla down the freeway while reading a newspaper. We are in for an interesting ride.
But I agree that the middle ground of some autonomous functions (Level 3) is probably the scariest, as the car can't truly drive itself, but its owner treats it like it can. Unfortunately for companies like Tesla, they have already had to deal with negative press of drivers involved in wrecks blaming the vehicle for an accident when the car actually alerted the driver and the driver failed to take control. I think we'll see more of that in the near future, not less. And, @atlgaxt, the truly scary thing is that I see people behind the wheel reading the newspaper (or a book) on I-90 more frequently than I would care to admit, and they aren't even driving a car that has ANY autonomous function. You just can't fix stupid.
About the only part of the progress toward autonomous vehicles I regret is the loss of the enjoyment of the driving experience. In a generation, car owners (can't really call them "drivers" any more) won't know the pure joy of ripping through twisting country roads. It's already extremely difficult to find cars with manual transmissions (and, no, the double-clutch transmissions like Porsche's PDK do NOT count). Pretty soon, the concept of driving for the sake of enjoyment will be a relic of the past.