A survey conducted by WhatCar? in regards to what the public think about autonomous cars. And I have to say it has thrown up some interesting results. Well I find them surprising anyway.
Out of the 900 people surveyed, 26% said they were happy to sleep in an autonomous car whilst it was driving. Rather them than me to be honest, I know the safety of the technology has been rigorously tested but even so, I'm not sure I could have a peaceful sleep with car in control.
Less surprising was the high number of people that would be happy speak to other passengers, browse the web or to watch the tele as the car drives itself to the required destination.
32% of people asked suggested the motorway would be best the use for autonomous car journeys, whilst 18% feel the technology would work best in city centres. 49% said that would let the car take over in a traffic jam, which makes perfect sense as crawling in a traffic jam can become quite tiresome, especially in a manual.
However, there is still a lot of skepticism among the public - including me - as 51% saying they would feel unsafe or very unsafe in the car and 45% find the prospect unappealing. 34% feel that the car would not be clever enough to avoid an accident, where as 30% feel an autonomous car would take the joy out of driving. Hear, hear!
Whatcar.com editorial director, Jim Holder, said: “It’s clear that autonomous cars have a way to go before the concept is truly adopted by the motoring public.
“Half the drivers we talked to would feel happiest allowing their car to take over in a traffic jam, when the risk is minimal, while hardly any of them would feel safe letting their car guide them along urban and country roads.
“So it’s perhaps a surprise that so many would feel alright about being piloted down some of the fastest roads – and then even more of a shock that so many would feel able to take a nap.
“The increasing availability of technologies like blind spot monitoring, automated emergency braking and radar-governed cruise control is slowly turning people around to the idea of self-driving cars but, even so, only just more than one in 10 believes we will see entirely autonomous vehicles on the road by 2020.”