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.

Comments

Well...

[jawtheshark]

I'm not an American, but I'm wary too. Besides, I like driving. When the topic comes up, most people who welcome driverless cars seem to be those that hate driving or have to spend a lot of time in traffic jams.

My main concern is not safety. I worry that driving will become cost prohibitive if driverless cars have a certain amount of adoption. Insurance companies will say "use driverless, or you pay X times more". That would relegate driving to the rich. Also, it would make current cars worthless overnight. Poorer people wouldn't be able to afford personal transportation at all any more, since there won't be enough second hand driverless cars. All in all a rather bleak future in my eyes.

Re:Well...

[JMZero]

I think you're right that "car ownership" would become less accessible over time, but I think "transportation by car" is likely to get very cheap. I think we'll see ubiquitous "Driverless Uber" style services pop up everywhere (in a variety of flavors), and that's how the non-wealthy get around (at least in urban settings).

But I also think the transition will take a while, especially in rural areas - enough so that I don't think the transition will be too brutal for most people economically. If anything, some may benefit from cheaper human driven cars as they're essentially discarded. But yeah, further out in time it will definitely not be good for people who like driving - just as it's currently very expensive/awkward to maintain and use a horse drawn carriage.

I think some people are jumping the gun a bit right now, but once driverless cars are reliable they're going to go from niche to everywhere very quickly.

Re: Well...

[Mkkby]

There are a lot of false assumptions in play here. First, that insurance will go up on manual cars. Insurance cost is based on claims rates. If self drivers lower the overall number of accidents in the system, insurance rates should go down, not up. Even the manual drivers will be living in a safer system, with lower accident claims.

Second, self drivers will be great for the disabled. Maybe in the long term, but not early on. Disabled people can't just be dropped off near a building. Yet GPS maps don't know where the entrances are located. Like the dominos pizza tester that you have to meet on the side of the road to get your pizza out of a lock box.

The last few meters of navigation will be very difficult for decades until a system of sensors and maps can be developed. Until then it will be very frustrating or even impossible to tell your car how to navigate thru a parking garage, to a drive up window, temporary barricade/detour. This makes me very skeptical that a car without manual steering will be anything but a reason for users to tear their hair out in frustration.

Remember, the biggest complaint about cars today is hard-to-use infotainment systems. If software engineers can't get something like this right in 2018, we are a long way off from frustration free self driving.

Of course not

[I'm New Around Here]

What if a gorilla walks across the road in front of you?

Safer than humans

[Hadlock]

I think most people haven't shared a street with them. I spent two years in the same city with these things, as a pedestrian, driver, and cyclist. They're infinitely patient with cyclists, hyper-paranoid about pedestrians wandering in to the street, like a parent is with their toddler.
 
Two weeks around self driving cars and you pretty much immediately realize that humans are just sacks of meat piloting cars, is about the dumbest idea, and the pedestrian fatality statistics back that up.
 
If I were to describe the "personality" of a self driving car, imagine a super chilled-out Mr. Rodgers paitent type, but he's also double-dosed on adderall and hyper alert for pedestrians, got 9 hours of sleep last night, good blood sugar, and his cell phone is on silent, locked in the trunk. And he has an IQ of 175 and can see in all directions and does not blink, and has a third eye that can see through shrubs and around cars.
 
Compare to the sleep-deprived, over caffinated, underfed mother who is juggling three kid's schedules and probably running late to pick up johnny from swim class while answering a phone call and trying to remember if she needs to pick up groceries on the way home.

Re:Safer than humans

[Hadlock]

When I think hyper paranoid, I'm thinking of a very specific incident.
 
I'm on castro street, which is the main resturaunt drag in Mountain View, about 6pm, peak hour. Getting ready to cross the street at the crosswalk to go to the train station. I'm standing on the sidewalk, about 2' from the curb, facing away from the street talking to them. We decide it's time to go, so I spin around on my heel so that I am facing towards the crosswalk/street. At this exact moment there's a break in traffic and the next car is one of the "cute" white waymo electric cars. I hear the tires chirp, and there's a surprised expression on the attendant's face. At this point the car has come to a complete stop, about 15-20' (one car length) ahead of the crosswalk. I hadn't started to walk in to the street/crosswalk yet, just spun in place.
 
Now, this tells me a few things
1. The car knew I was there. I've almost been run over IN that same crosswalk by inattentive drivers in the span of 18 months.
2. The car was tracking my motion and making assumptions about my intent
3. The car decided my motion passed a certain threshold and decided to take evasive action.
 
Keep in mind this is a very busy intersection, it's a 3-way T car intersection, plus a crosswalk, and no less than four outdoor seating areas for resturaunts, plus rush hour sidewalk traffic. Easily 100+ people in a 50' radius around the car. I was partially obscured by no less than two other tall people on the sidewalk.
 
But the car saw me moving what it thought was erratically, made the call and stopped, rather than risk slowly bumping in to me.
 
  That might seem unremarkable, but I've had two human-driven cars back in to me while walking through a parking lot, I've been turning left at a stop sign, and a (Very exhausted) hospital nurse came to a stop, then drove in to me in the intersection, I've had cars not see me in the crosswalk and drive in to me when their light turns green. I was a good 15' away in this instance and the car chose to stop rather than risk any contact with me. Yes, that's hyper-paranoid, but didn't delay anyone getting to their resturaunt, nobody was late getting home and more importantly nobody died that day (even if this would have been minor at worst).
 
So yeah, I'm pretty happy with how they've designed these things, sure they're a bit more careful than the average human, but what I've seen at that intersection previously, humans are awful at piloting cars, especially when tired/hungry/distracted.

Re:They're perfect for the city

[sn0wflake]

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.