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Americans Still Deeply Skeptical About Driverless Cars, Says Poll (theverge.com)
A new poll was released today that basically repeats data we've seen in previous surveys: Americans still don't trust self-driving cars, and are nervous about the coming onslaught. The Verge reports: Asked how concerned they'd be to share the road with a driverless car, 31 percent said they'd be "very concerned," while 33 percent said "somewhat concerned," according to the poll which was just released by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. A majority (63 percent) said they would not support "mass exemptions" from federal motor vehicle safety standards for self-driving cars, and were not comfortable (75 percent) with automakers having the power to remotely disable vehicle controls, such as the steering wheel, and brake and gas pedals, when the autonomous vehicle is being operated by the computer. And people overwhelmingly support (75 percent) the U.S. Department of Transportation developing new standards related to driverless vehicles. The poll surveyed 1,005 adults between December 7-10th, 2017, with a margin of error of +/- 3.09 percent.
I watched a news report where they tested out driver-less cars in Germany. All went well until they came upon some road construction. The sensors didn't seem to register the cones and signs that were set up, and the car wanted to drive through it into a hole that the construction crew had dug. The person observing the car had to interfere. Errors like these is a sure sign that autonomous cars are far away in the distant future.