Drivers Are Warming Up to Autonomous Technology but Only When it Works

Drivers Are Warming Up to Autonomous Technology but Only When it Works

By Louis Bedigian

The success of new technology is no accident. Consumers are most receptive when they have the chance to see, touch and wholeheartedly experience the innovation firsthand. Unlike a smartphone, however, autonomous vehicles cannot be found at every electronics store in town.

Hoping to bring potential users closer to the future of mobility, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) hosted four public demo day events across Florida, California, and Michigan. The events offered a closer look at how these vehicles might function once deployed, providing the masses with an opportunity to ride inside of a self-driving vehicle.

Mary Moore, Strategic Marketing Director at SAE International, was on the frontlines gathering consumer reactions at each event. With 1,400 participants surveyed, she said that enthusiasm for the technology is “very high.”

“What we found was 82% of them were extremely enthusiastic about self-driving vehicles,” said Moore. “I think that’s a little bit different from what you typically hear in the other surveys that have been done. What was also interesting was that after the ride, you saw that enthusiasm increase to about 88%.”

Moore believes that as consumers experience and understand which technologies are available today and what is coming, the fear factor or apprehension of self-driving technology will come down.

“That’s the major finding here,” she added. “People are genuinely enthusiastic about it and just want to know more. For each of those four events, we filled up all the slots because people self-volunteered to come out within a couple of days of opening registration. There’s a clear interest in coming and understanding what these vehicles are.”

SAE was mostly focused on higher-end autonomous cars that were as advanced as Level 4, meaning they could theoretically drive themselves in most situations. While safety drivers were present in each automobile, they were only there to intervene if necessary.

The Highway Loss Data Institute, however, is more concerned with looking at autonomous or assistive features that are already available to buy. A sister organization to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, HLDI recently gave employees the chance to borrow a Level 2-equipped vehicle as part of an internal study.

“People were surprised when [the technology] didn’t work,” said David Kidd, Senior Research Scientist at the Highway Loss Data Institute. “If the vehicle was supposed to be doing lane-centering [and] all-of-a-sudden provided steering input that the driver didn’t think it needed to – it wavered in the lane – that’s where you have people getting concerned or showing a negative reaction.”

Level 2 autonomy requires that drivers always keep their hands on the wheel, but that doesn’t mean the vehicle will respond appropriately. Kidd has found that when grabbing the wheel, some vehicles required more force than others to override an automatic feature. This might explain the wide range of reactions he received during the study.

“It’s very person-specific,” said Kidd. “Some people are, ‘I want to do it myself. I don’t trust technology.’ They’re very opposed. You have others who are early adopters who are open to using technology, found a lot of value from it. And then you have other people who maybe had a bad experience with a given technology and that turned them off, and that was it.”

That, Kidd explained, is one of the biggest challenges facing the industry. If a bad experience turns someone off so severely that they have no interest in other autonomous features, it might be time to pump the brakes.

For now, few consumers will feel that the industry is accelerating. Despite all the hype and headlines, only a handful of individuals have tested an autonomous vehicle of any level. Until the day comes when features are standardized, errors have been eliminated, and concerns are thoroughly alleviated, that might be for the best.