A new poll indicates Americans are not ready for driverless cars, which could put a wrench in the auto-driving technologies developed by techno-giants Tesla and Google.
A poll conducted by Morning Consult asked 1,869 registered voters from Jan. 29 to Feb.1 a series of questions about the safety of driverless vehicles.
The poll shows that 43 percent of voters believe self-driving vehicles are unsafe, while about 32 percent of those polled said they are safe. There is some wiggle room for the driverless function, as 25 percent said they didn’t know or didn’t care.
Additionally, 51 percent of voters said they would not ride or drive an autonomous vehicle. The other half of subjects was split, with 25 percent of those polled saying they would take the car for a spin, and the remaining 24 percent saying they don’t care.
The poll also found an age gap existed between millennials and baby boomers on the subject – the older the voter, the less safe they found auto-driving functions. Those between 18 and 29, on the other hand, were more likely (at 45 percent) to say self-driving cars were safe.
Thirty-seven percent of 30- to 44-year-olds said self-driving vehicles were safe, followed by 27 percent of 45- to 54-year-olds. Only 25 percent of voters 65 years and older said they thought self-driving cars are reasonably safe.
The poll’s findings come on the heels of news that the current crop of self-driving vehicles may not be entirely street ready.
Elon Musk, the figurehead behind Tesla Motors, told reporters in January Tesla is drastically limiting its self-driving software after customers posted YouTube videos of themselves reading books in the backseat while using the car’s auto-function.
The data in the Morning Consult polls also shows 36 percent of respondents said it would be acceptable for people to text or email while riding in a driverless car, while 53 percent said such actions would not be acceptable. And 30 percent of voters said it would be acceptable for people to read while being toted around by auto-driving cars, while 58 percent said it would be unacceptable.
The poll’s authors, Amir Nasr and Fawn Johnson, told reporters Monday “it will take time for consumers to grow comfortable with the idea of driverless cars. People are wary of ceding all control to a vehicle, and therefore some of the features that allow the driver to completely ignore the task of driving won’t be available for some time.”
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