Monday, August 3, 2015

We really don't want self-driving cars

Last year, one of the motoring organisations in Europe conducted several studies, asking drivers of all ages and backgrounds what their feelings were on self-driving cars. The general consensus was that nobody really wanted them, and at the time it was considered that it might be more appealing to the American market.
Skip forwards 8 months and now we have some inkling that US drivers might also not be that hot about the idea of self-driving cars. Michigan's Transportation Research Institute just published the results of a recent study in the US, and it turns out 70% of drivers pretty much don't want self-driving cars, and over 95% of them said that if self-driving cars are forced upon us, they wanted gas and brake pedals and steering wheels.
More to the point, in the light of recently published hacks against Chrysler vehicles - now ask yourself the question - do you want to be in a completely automated car? By necessity they'll be net-connected, meaning they'll be even larger hacking targets than existing vehicles.
If you've read this blog for any amount of time, you know my feelings on drone cars already.
Anyway - the Fortune article that talks about the TRI study can be found here : Most Americans want to put the brakes on self-driving cars