market research

POLL: US Adults Have Mixed Feelings About Self-Driving Vehicles

We found that most Americans believe that there is a self-driving vehicle available for consumers to purchase somewhere in the world.
article cover

Dan McCarthy/Datawrapper

less than 3 min read

Keep up with the innovative tech transforming business

Tech Brew keeps business leaders up-to-date on the latest innovations, automation advances, policy shifts, and more, so they can make informed decisions about tech.

Emerging Tech Brew polled America last week. To be more specific, we teamed up with The Harris Poll to ask a nationally representative group of 1,052 US adults about self-driving.

Pulse check: Most Americans (62%) believe that there is a self-driving vehicle available for consumers to purchase somewhere in the world. As an eagle-eyed reader of this newsletter, you know that’s not true.

But, hypothetically assuming a fully autonomous vehicle (AV) were widely available, here’s a (non-exhaustive) glimpse of what we asked about:

  • 🚦 Safety-first: 48% would feel at least somewhat safe in an AV’s passenger seat vs. 59% in the driver’s seat.
  • ⚖ Liability: 75% would like more clarification on who’s legally responsible in the event of an AV-involved accident.
  • 💸 Willingness to pay: Not too high. Most who are willing to ride in an AV are relatively unwilling to pay a premium to do so.
  • 🔮 Early adopters: Gen Z (71%) and Millenials (62%) are almost twice as likely to ride as an AV passenger as Baby Boomers (32%).

Parsing the results

Americans are confused. And rightfully so. Our hunch is that they’re conflating advanced driver assist systems (ADAS) with self-driving.

21% say they’ve ridden in a car with Level 2 features engaged, which...seems high? That classification refers to ADAS that control two driving functions, like steering and braking/accelerating, at the same time. Examples include GM Super Cruise and Tesla Autopilot.

  • The term comes from SAE’s 5 Levels, which is how engineers, carmakers, and regulators benchmark automated driving systems. These terms weren’t created for consumers...and it shows.

Over-trusting Level 2—or assuming it’s self-driving—can lead to dangerous situations.

To head off some confusion, Waymo recently ditched the term “self-driving” for "fully autonomous driving tech" in its marketing and educational material. Conversely, Tesla has tested the nerves of officials by promoting a “self-driving” product, and more recently, rolling out a highly automated ADAS in beta.

Maybe related? In a world where multiple brands are selling AVs, 41% of Americans would prefer to buy one from Tesla, more than twice the share who would choose a legacy automaker. Just to over-communicate, though, we aren’t in that world.

Want more? Head to The Harris Poll’s hub with the full results. And stay tuned for something else soon. 👀

Keep up with the innovative tech transforming business

Tech Brew keeps business leaders up-to-date on the latest innovations, automation advances, policy shifts, and more, so they can make informed decisions about tech.

T
B