Australians may like the idea behind self-driving cars but they have some things they want to take a look at first. A study carried out by Australian Driverless Vehicle Initiative (ADVI) shows that Australians are not yet quick to let go of their cars that make use of steering.
From the study carried out on over 5, 000 people of Australia that are up to the age of 18 years and above showed that they fancy self-driving cars only when they are tired, under the influence of drugs, alcohol or just bored of driving.
Australian Road Research Board chief scientist, Michael Regan said that even with the enthusiasm, the survey showed that some of the concerns that the people have are issues of financial stability, data privacy and also that of security. He also noted that almost all respondents did not support that children should ride in the self-driving cars by themselves. It was only 25% of them that agreed that they can use such cars to pick their kids up.
He attributed the high number of people with reservations over self-driving cars to a lack of trust people have about the technology. He said that only 47% of the respondents believe that the cars are safer than the cars that humans drive themselves.
Another thing he noted that is of major concern to the people is who will bear the responsibility when the car gets into an accident since no insurance company has yet to come up to accept responsibility.
People are also skeptical about the functions that such cars will come along with which could be confusing or tasking. From the survey, the respondents said they preferred a car they can maneuver by themselves and also control at the speed they want instead of having self-driving cars changing lanes by themselves and also closely following other cars. To this, Regan said is understandable as people are not used to following cars that closely, but noted that the reason for the close-up is to reduce the traffic on the road.
Nevertheless, Regan said that despite all the concerns raised that a good number of people, 4- percent, were willing to pay a huge amount of money to get one of such cars. He said this came as a surprise to him being that these people that are willing to do so have not laid their hands on a driverless car before.
He also noted that 83% of the people said they will still love to drive their cars by themselves from time to time. This information is such that manufacturers of such autonomous vehicles can take into consideration and see what they can do about it.
The full details of the report will be made available from the first quarter of 2017.
