Poll Reveals That Half Of Americans Believe Self Driving Vehicles Are More Dangerous Than Human Drivers

Companies are pushing ahead with the development of self-driving cars at full throttle, but many Americans still don't trust the technology, if a Reuters/Ipsos poll is to be believed. Half of the respondents thought autonomous cars were more dangerous than human-driven vehicles, while two-thirds said they would not buy a fully autonomous car.

In addition, two-thirds of respondents said self-driving cars should be held to higher government safety standards than human-driven vehicles. Regulation is one of the biggest roadblocks to mass deployment of autonomous cars. A handful of states have crafted their own rules, but there has been little action on the federal level. Bills that would have cleared some red tape have been blocked in Congress, and adapting current federal rules to autonomous vehicles will be a complex and lengthy process.

PUGPROUD - 4/2/2019 2:18:49 PM

+2 Boost

And the people have spoken...

scenicbyway12 - 4/2/2019 3:37:30 PM

+4 Boost

I fear in 20 years it will be illegal to self-drive on the freeway.

PUGPROUD - 4/2/2019 4:15:12 PM

+3 Boost

While I understand your concern, the cost and practical aspects of transitioning 253 million self driving cars with an average age of 11.4 years to fully autonomous driving are enormously challenging and would take many many decades if ever.

MDarringer - 4/2/2019 6:19:09 PM

-2 Boost

I HOPE in 20 years it will be illegal to self-drive on the freeway.

mini22 - 4/2/2019 7:44:11 PM

+5 Boost

As of now the people are right. The software for autonomous vehicles is simply not bullet proof enough nor has enough redundancies in it to be safe enough. Perhaps that will change in the future but it aint here yet.

SanJoseDriver - 4/5/2019 11:33:19 PM

+1 Boost

Waymo is already doing some autonomous rides with no safety driver and we'll see what Tesla's new hardware can do later this month. I see Ford, Toyota, GM, and Nissan self-driving prototypes pretty regularly on Silicon Valley freeways.

The hardware is already here today, self-driving is now really a software problem. It can go from mediocre to really good surprisingly fast... it's much easier to do a software iteration than a hardware one. I give it 5 years before getting an AV "taxi" ride becomes common in major cities.