Survey - majority of people would be reluctant to be a passenger in a driverless car

According to a survey carried out by ICM Unlimited on behalf of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 55 per cent of the 2002 people surveyed said they were unlikely to want to be a passenger of a driverless car, with 40 per cent saying they were very unlikely to want to be a passenger. Just 21 per cent said they would be happy to ride in a driverless vehicle. Philippa Oldham, head of Transport and Manufacturing at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said: “The benefits of driverless vehicle tech
May 27, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
According to a survey carried out by ICM Unlimited on behalf of the 5025 Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 55 per cent of the 2002 people surveyed said they were unlikely to want to be a passenger of a driverless car, with 40 per cent saying they were very unlikely to want to be a passenger. Just 21 per cent said they would be happy to ride in a driverless vehicle.

Philippa Oldham, head of Transport and Manufacturing at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said: “The benefits of driverless vehicle technology are huge, with estimates that it could be worth as much as £51 billion a year to the UK due to fewer accidents, improved productivity and increased trade. Furthermore with 95 per cent of all vehicle accidents being the result of human error, it makes sense to look at how we can use this new technology to help save lives.

She said there is clearly still a long way to go to increase public confidence in the effectiveness and safety benefits of driverless technology.

“Government and industry must work together not only to better educate and inform the public about driverless car technology but to make sure that they are developing the products that the end users want.”
Location Based Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Co-operative infrastructure reduces congestion, increases safety
    January 30, 2012
    ITS Japan's Chairman Hiroyuki Watanabe talks to ITS International about his country's progress with cooperative infrastructures and how the experience gained to date can benefit similar initiatives elsewhere. Japan gave the rest of the world a taste of the cooperative infrastructure future when, in 1996, it went live with the Vehicle Information and Communication System (VICS). Designed to provide real-time traffic information and alerts to in-vehicle navigation systems with the dual aims of increasing safe
    Read More
  • Truck CO2 standards ‘must be part of Government CO2 reduction policy’
    July 4, 2016
    In response to the UK Government’s Fifth Carbon Budget, Freight on Rail says that the Department for Transport must support EU plans to introduce CO2 truck standards to bring HGVs into line with cars and vans. In the UK, HGVs contribute 17 per cent of surface transport’s CO2 emissions even though it only makes up five per cent of road miles driven. Philippa Edmunds, Freight on Rail manager, Campaign for Better Transport said CO2 standards and reduction targets for HGVs are long overdue as truck manufac
    Read More
  • After two decades of research, ITS is getting into its stride
    June 4, 2015
    Colin Sowman gets the global view on how ITS has shaped the way we travel today and what will shape the way we travel tomorrow. Over the past two decades the scope and spread of intelligent transport systems has grown and diversified to encompass all modes of travel while at the same time integrating and consolidating. Two decades ago the idea of detecting cyclists or pedestrians may have been considered impossible and why would you want to do that anyway? Today cyclists can account for a significant propor
    Read More
  • US infrastructure: once in a lifetime
    April 23, 2021
    Expectations are sky-high for Amtrak Joe and Mayor Pete as they use infrastructure spending to rebuild the US economy post-Covid – and ITS firms should be able to get a share...
    Read More

Highlighted Content