70.3% of motorists are ‘ready to turn their backs’ on driverless cars, a survey by insurance broker Adrian Flux has found.
Just over 5% of the 1,784 customers surveyed said that they would embrace the new technology, while 24% were undecided.
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Of those who were negative with the idea of driverless cars, more than 45% didn’t like the idea of not being in control, while nearly 36% said they simply enjoy driving too much to hand over the reins.
Nearly 5% said they were worried about the implications of hacking, 4.4% feared it would be too expensive, and 2.9% didn’t believe driverless cars would ever catch on.
Gerry Bucke, general manager at Flux, said the survey showed that the biggest obstacle to the uptake of driverless cars is people’s love of driving, fear of the unknown and reluctance to give yet more of their lives over to computers.
"There appears little doubt that driverless cars will become a reality in one form or another, but motorists are clearly struggling with the idea of giving up the freedom of the open road and simple pleasure of driving great cars," he added.
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By GlobalData"Many people have a real passion for cars and driving, and if vehicles are all essentially the same, moving around the country at fixed speeds with no input from the driver, one of life’s pleasures will be taken away.
"The biggest stumbling block to this new technology, however good it may be, could well be that people simply don’t want it."
10 more reasons people provided for why they said no to driverless cars:
– "We are a long way from having such devices as a practical option. A mix of self-driving cars and ‘driver’ driven cars would seem a recipe for disaster."
– "I don’t trust the ability to write software to control a vehicle without including bugs."
– "I am worried that when they develop faults (and they will – all cars do), the consequences could be a whole lot more serious than with conventional cars."
– "You will never enjoy going for a drive for pleasure again."
– "A person can make better decisions than a computer in certain circumstances."
– "Hacking is proven to be prolific and systems are not secure – one hack is one too many."
– "How will they cope once people learn that they can step or ride out and expect cars to stop, regardless of potential injury to occupants in an emergency stop? What about being stopped and robbed or attacked?"
– "I don’t like modern cars and I wouldn’t replace my Beetle with anything."
– "If I’m heading towards a person or a cliff which choice would the car take?"
– "We live in a tiny village that does not even have fibre optic broadband so driverless cars is a pipe dream"
