There have been notable developments on autonomous vehicles over the last year and Reportlinker conducted a new survey to analyse public opinion towards this developing technology.

Following a first survey from 2016, Reportlinker conducted a new research to answer the following questions

• Are people ready to adopt autonomous vehicles?

• Do they trust these vehicles to be safe ?

• What brand are the most popular?

• Would Americans use autonomous public transportation?

Autonomous vehicles

Key Findings

Key findings show that:

• More than 70% of people say they love driving themselves 

• Nevertheless, automation is slowly finding its way into American cars as more than 50% say their vehicles have automatic cruise control and 36% have cameras with rear or side views.

• In fact, 53% say they woud now buy a fully autonomous vehicle for their next purchase: 
  Along gender lines, women are more likely than men to be willing to buy one with 59% of responses

Public opinion worried by safety issues:

• 67% of repondents say they would not feel safe in a self-driving car: women are especially leery, with 73% saying they are worried about their safety.

What brand?

• Tesla is the top brand mentionned when asked about automated vehicles with 16% of mentions, followed by Ford (7%), Google (6%), Chevrolet (6%) and Toyota (5%),

• 30% now say technology firms are likely to lead the way, about the same percentage that named traditional car companies as leaders last year.

Public transportation:

• 59% of people say they don’t think automated public transportation will happen in the future.

• In fact, interest in using self-driving buses or taxis dropped to 33% compared to 42% last September

• While Millennials remain open to the idea, older generations are less likely to be interested than they were last year, with 72% saying they are not interested in using automated public transportation, compared to 61% in 2016.

To see all the survey results click here.