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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy most drivers don’t want autonomous cars
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/techflash/2016/05/drivers-dont-want-self-driving-cars-uber-google.htmlAnnie Gaus - May 23, 2016, 9:44pm PDT
Companies like Google, Uber, Lyft and Tesla may be racing toward a future of automated vehicles, but public opinion hasnt warmed to the idea of driverless cars.
According to a study by University of Michigan, 43.8 percent of drivers surveyed said they didnt want any automation at all in their next vehicles.
The study, which measured attitudes toward varying levels of automation (fully self driving, partially self-driving, and no self-driving) found that only 15 percent of respondents would want a fully self-driving vehicle as their next purchase. Meanwhile, 39 percent said they would prefer a vehicle that has some self-driving features.
~ snip ~
A feeling of concern over self-driving vehicles ticked slightly upwards since 2015, according to the survey, with 37 percent saying they would be "very concerned" about riding in a completely self-driving vehicle as opposed to 35 percent last year. Older drivers were more turned off by self-driving cars than their younger peers, but even among 18 to 29 year olds, only 18 percent said they wanted an autonomous car.
~ snip ~
Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)FrodosPet
(5,169 posts)I've known a few people who NEVER use it.
I was a fan, as I hate traffic tickets, and the speed has a habit of creeping up on me. But I have had passengers get mad at me for using it.
Achieving 100% autonomous operation on 98% of travelable pathways 99+% of the time is still several years away. Achieving majority support for the control-less Google concept is much further away than that.
Chan790
(20,176 posts)When self-driving cars come...it won't come because the public supports it, it'll come because the technology will have sufficiently advanced to the point that it's substantially-safer (for people) and less risky (for insurers) than human-controlled cars.
At that point, expect the insurance industry to bring an all-out blitzkrieg and rally every disparate ally they can find to restrict back usage of human-controlled cars on most rapid time-frame they can achieve combined with internal policy changes of the industry. ("We'll insure your Google Car for just $400/year...you want to be able to drive yourself, that'll be $10,000/year." They've already had industry discussions on tactics for when the day comes; those talks started soon after Google started their self-driving car project.
It'll go a lot like the effort in the mid-1980s to change laws to mandate seat-belt usage...at the time, something like 9% of Americans supported those efforts. When they come for your privilege to drive...it'll be a bloodless coup that will be over before the public can so much as think they need to resist or have a say at-all in the matter.
frazzled
(18,402 posts)I've used it only a handful of times, when my foot has gotten numb after hours of highway driving, and then only for a couple of minutes to wiggle my foot out. I just feel like I don't have full control of the vehicle unless my foot is on the gas pedal. And on most even moderately heavy highway traffic, one needs to adjust one's speed quite frequently anyway to keep a safe distance from the car ahead. (Plus, I'm a pretty devoted passer on the highway, so I frequently have to speed up to do so, and I don't like to go from no foot to all foot.)
I can often tell when a driver is on cruise: they're either going slightly faster than the traffic ahead and ending up tailgating dangerously till the last minute, or they're stuck at a few miles below the flow of the traffic and causing backups or long strings of passing.
My husband loves cruise control, but I'm always feeling like I have to backseat drive when he's using it (watch out, you're getting way too close to that car that's going slower than you!). To each his own, I guess. I'm just not a good candidate for a driverless car. I hate driving anyway, and do it less and less each year. Driving in the city, where I live, is hell: between the taxis, the bicyclists, pedestrians, construction, and other crazy drivers, I feel like a nervous wreck usually.
FrodosPet
(5,169 posts)It can help keep you at a safe distance from the car ahead of you.
cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)I thought something was wrong with the cruise control. The car kept slowing down for no reason, so I thought it was kicking off. It was bouncing some kind of signal off of the car in front of me, and slowing down (with brake lights on so people behind me noticed) to match its speed. I found out a while later I can actually adjust my comfortable distance between cars. So I can set it for 75, and when there are no cars in front of me; that's how fast it will go... until a slower car pulls in front of me. When they move out of my lane, back to 75.
Nice.
moriah
(8,311 posts)I love cruise for long drives with few people on the road, but...
Sounds like they've done good with this!
Of course, I am old fogie enough to think there is a danger in devices that allow for drivers to (most of the time) be able to be fine driving despite not paying full attention to the road. I have my phone interfaced with my car and I can make and receive calls without having to take my hands off the wheel, which I love. But it also has made me more willing to talk while driving than I ever was with just an earpiece headset. Is the safety of at least keeping my hands and eyes on the road worth the distraction of talking vs using all my brains to drive?
Though I do absolutely LOVE audiobooks, and my Fire Phone's ability to read to me over tbe car speaker then pick back up in my e-reader just where it stopped.
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)I don't feel like I have complete control of my car.
LisaM
(27,813 posts)As her passenger sometimes, I feel nervous. I find her less immediately responsive to freeway traffic than drivers who don't use it.
Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)FrodosPet
(5,169 posts)I want them to be in a vehicle that is SAFER than a human-driven car. That is why I am studying LiDAR and other critical technologies, until the smoke practically comes out of my ears.
Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)FrodosPet
(5,169 posts)But they are not ready for primetime yet. And they will be a very expensive boutique item, as the demand from people financially able to buy them is going to be small for quite a while until they prove themselves safe over a long period.
And even when they ARE safer than an experienced, middle aged human driver, people still like to drive. We are a control freak species.
Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)stage. Electric powered cars has taken decades to reach acceptance, both technologically and culturally.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)city car share and zip car for example. Many people use these services instead of the hassle of buying a car. Many of these autonomous cars will not be available for sale to customers. It will be a license like the software model. Obviously doesn't work for rural areas but it's fine for cities.
Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)are represented by older citizens, demand for solutions to freedom of travel will only increase.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)override function for driving in certain areas. ??
As for the speed of transition, once it starts my guess is it will be very quick in many areas, the more affluent the quicker -- just about as quick as experiencing the difference between relaxing, chatting, reading, keyboarding in transit and driving hunched over the wheel concentrating on the road, i.e., working. Everyone's going to want to take the Jones' car to the lake.
Will all seats have to face only forward, I wonder, or could the front seats swivel and lock facing backward?
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)All will have different characteristics, Google has indicated they want a car without a steering wheel.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)we live in a semi-rural area I wonder how long it might take until we could just dial one up out here. Our county here in the Deep South is extremely conservative, but even here they realize not everyone has their transport taken care of by family and members of their church congregations, although that's the imaginary tradition, and that the county has to provide something.
FrodosPet
(5,169 posts)OK, I know better. Never underestimate the stupidity of politicians and bureaucrats.
They are PROBABLY not going to set a car without human controls. And when they do, it will do some embarrassing things, and based on my recent research, the market will heavily reject them.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)FrodosPet
(5,169 posts)Then again, who doesn't? God is always hitting up people, even the poorest people, for cash.
"He's omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. But he's not very good with money."
In any case, They are still going to find resistance. And there sure isn't anything close to standards to car-to-car and "shore" to car communications yet.
Chan790
(20,176 posts)is that you expect the public is going to have a say.
This, when it comes, is going to be a conversation solely between insurers, manufacturers, lawmakers and the Dept. of Transportation where all of them are saying the same thing to the public..."we know best, you don't get to have an opinion."
It's not something you're going to be able to resist...like seat-belt laws, it's going to be imposed on you and you'll adapt to accept it soon enough.
Chan790
(20,176 posts)do you know the story of how the Google Car lost it's steering wheel? This is actually funny.
In track testing (before they had done much live, on-road testing), they consistently noticed that in the highest-risk, worst situations...the situations that car is best suited to drive and humans are worst-suited to drive...drivers kept disengaging the self-driving capabilities and taking control of the car. This was a problem and it took a good deal of time to condition the drivers to think "Self-drive in the good times if you want...auto-drive is 100 times better for traffic and hazardous conditions than a human is capable of driving."
Anyways, once the project started to get some buzz and there was some nascent discussion about what state laws might look like, one of the things that kept coming up was that a number of states said they'd require the driver to be able to take control...precisely what shouldn't happen...so Google beat them to the pulpit and took the steering wheels out, calling it "an improvement to remove the most-faulty aspect of automotive-control from the equation."
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)I have great trouble driving because of my autistic sensory issues and I feel like a second-class citizen because our society is so car-centric.
Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)Self driving cars would help me a lot. A friend of mine has a Tesla. The autopilot mode let's him goes hands off during rush hour on the expressway. 20 miles and he just texts all the time.
FrodosPet
(5,169 posts)If some a-hole zooms up on your tail, will it speed up or change lanes to avoid or minimize a "kiss my ass end" collision?
I do need to learn a lot more about Tesla's system.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)Lanes are kept by cameras. So on an interstate on rush hour, all is cool.
The front and back is lidar, iirc. E
So in your scenario with the coming up from behind, the car speeds up but stays short of the car in front.
Mojorabbit
(16,020 posts)moriah
(8,311 posts)... incremental ways cars are learning to assist drivers, and those of us who are sighted pilot these things to make sure they work reliably vs are going to lose a sensor and say a lane is clear when it's not...
I wouldn't want to get in one at all, and I know my vision is a gift -- was legally blind in one eye at five due to it being slightly less than perfect refractory-wise and my brain deciding to use the other preferentially.
Now I can pass the test without glasses or contacts, but it was a long road of glasses, patching, drops to blur my good eye when just after-school patching wasn't enough to get my brain to use that eye... essentially, for parts of my childhood I was forced to deal with extremely poor vision at least half of the time because otherwise I wouldn't have any in that eye at all now. Brains remain plastic enough only for a short time for the strategy to work as well as it did, so yay for kindergarten eye testing!
Brickbat
(19,339 posts)Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)But there will come a time I might not be able too as I get older
Brickbat
(19,339 posts)I was speaking more to the attitude of "why don't people like this?" They don't because most of them don't need it yet.
RKP5637
(67,111 posts)health fails driverless on an as-needed basis would be a nice option if not ridiculously overpriced.
I don't even like self-correcting brakes...I know how to get out of a skid.
self driving cars would be wonderful, but i want to see them in action, in real use, first.
kentauros
(29,414 posts)Because then I can take corners and curves at the speeds that are fun and hone my skills of controlling the vehicle while still keeping in my lane and hugging the curb without ever grazing it.
But. I'd say that at least 90% of the time I can't do that because there's some yahoo in front of me that is a) crawling around that corner/curve, and b) taking it so wide as to "flatten" the curve as much as physically possible, and who gives a shit if they take up the entire road and cause oncoming traffic to slam to a stop to let them pass.
People know how to operate a motor vehicle.
That insane majority do not know how to drive. They're afraid of it.
mopinko
(70,127 posts)in fact, i am about to buy the closest thing to an autonomous car i can find.
i am almost 62, have never been a great driver, and recently had my insurance cancelled for one too many fender benders. i dont drive at night any more after a somewhat overtired double whammy.
i intend to buy a car that doesnt let me do that stuff, because living w/o a car scares me. that was sort of the last nail in the coffin of my mom's mental acuity. she sunk into dementia when she was isolated like that. she couldnt drive because her new hip cost her control of her right foot.
my daughter has epilepsy as well as anxiety problems. it is pretty well controlled with meds, but even if she could get her license, she doesnt want to drive.
she lives right near me, and hopefully, when she is feeling better she might get up her courage to try driving again. but there is no way she would do it without that back up. being able to borrow my car once in a while would make a big difference to her. she has other health issues, and often cannot walk to the store or the pharmacy when she needs to. and she spends way to much of her disability check on uber. she is dying for the day she can get a self driving car.
so yeah, some of us do want a failsafe on our cars. and as us boomers get up there, more will really want to put off that inevitable day when we cant drive any more. in this culture, it is practically a death sentence.
PersonNumber503602
(1,134 posts)I would be nervous riding in a self-driving car at first, but I cannot wait until the day it's something we can feel confident about getting into.
Although there is that interesting moral dilemma that comes with a bunch of networked self-driving cars figuring out how to handle who needs to be sacrificed during a major accident.
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)driverless cars on special roads with electronic sensors.
Take one highway lane and prepare it for driverless cars so you can forget about driving while the road and the car interact to get you where you want to go while taking a nap or reading a book. Integrate charging technologies into the road, too, so your electric car can take you cross country without a worry.
Hoppy
(3,595 posts)It even stops if the car in front stops. (2015 Hyundai Sonata).
I think it is wonderful.
I have driven at least 1,500,000 miles ( I am in sales) and never caused an accident.
I still pay attention to the road in front of me and don't depend on the car's radar and computer to do my job. Still, it is great to have a second pair of eyes working for me (besides my wife's).
Every car I buy in future, will have at least this amount of auto-control.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)Hoppy
(3,595 posts)Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)Hoppy
(3,595 posts)It needs to be mostly free of dirt and bugs in order to work. There are four more radar devices, one on the corner of each fender.
NutmegYankee
(16,199 posts)People want to be in control. Hell, I enjoy driving.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)For years we have been marketed about the freedom driving gives us and the fun it is to drive down curvey roads.
Most cars bought by individuals spend the majority of their lives sitting in parking lots going no where.
Why should a car be idle all day while you sit at work? Why should you be paying for it to sit there.
Isn't the freedom to drive a car makers slogan, The new one will be the freedom to ride.
NutmegYankee
(16,199 posts)It's sitting there like any other tool or object we own. My AC system sits idle half the year. My snowblower and lawnmower are only used a dozen times a year. I own a TV but only turn it on once a week.
This is normal.
As for driving curvy roads, I live in the southern New England uplands and my drive in is mostly curvy two lane roads. It makes the 25 minutes go by so quick.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)When I get my city car share I get a late model vehicle every time. Sometimes a little fiat, or a prius. If I need a pickup or a van I get one of those. So you have one car I have access to six or seven different models of new cars.
The car I use, comes with it's own parking spot which living in the city would cost me $200 a month. Insurance is included with the service, so is cleaning the car, and gas.
Cars wear out at the same rate driven or not except for tires. A car reaches it's useful life on the odometer not time.
Except in northern states where they salt the crap out of the roads. In your case the car might be rusty in a few years, in the new model the car gets replaced long before it starts to rust.
NutmegYankee
(16,199 posts)They either live in suburbs or low density sprawling cities. I live out in the countryside, 8 miles from the nearest grocery store. The share services don't work out here. For what it's worth, I'll never live in a major city again. I like having land to garden, cleaner air, no noise pollution 24/7 and seeing wildlife each day. It's refreshing.
I do take issue with your statement that cars wear out at the same rate driven or not. A car that is lightly driven may last it's owner 20 years. Those ride share cars only last a few years. But since you are merely renting them, you don't care about that.
Humanist_Activist
(7,670 posts)shown that computer controlled cars are just 1% safer than human drivers on regular roads, it will be too expensive to not have a driver-less car. You would(rightly) be placed in a high risk pool.
NutmegYankee
(16,199 posts)I'm sure a lot of people will ensure that is prohibited.
Chan790
(20,176 posts)The automotive insurance industry started high-level C2C talks years ago to devise their strategy to thwart any public resistance. This fight will be over before you knew it started.
Logical
(22,457 posts)meow2u3
(24,764 posts)They call to mind this: "In Soviet Russia, car drives you!"
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)NutmegYankee
(16,199 posts)I think stability control and lane detection/auto braking are great features. I just still want to actually be in control. I enjoy the driving, which is why I drive stick shift cars.
hunter
(38,317 posts)I was hoping the automobile age would be over by now.
The world would be a better place if fewer people were driving.
kentauros
(29,414 posts)Because the majority of the drivers out there are simply not good drivers. They don't take driving seriously. Too many insist on being distracted drivers, mostly by being on their phones in some capacity. They don't read signs. Many can't seem to stand the idea of missing an exit and turning around at the next exit (how many times have you seen some idiot backing up in the emergency lane because they just have to make that exit they drove past?) Just as many will drive over curbs to avoid some slowdown of traffic ahead of them.
Self-driving cars would eliminate all of that stupidity. Whatever "concern" that so-called majority has doesn't compare to the concern I have with them over their own unsafe driving habits.
Heeeeers Johnny
(423 posts)The same way we treat and punish drunk drivers?
kentauros
(29,414 posts)The biggest problem is that the person has to be seen in the act of using their phone. Drunk driving has various reliable tests after the fact. Unless officers are also allowed to look at the last activity of the phone, they can't do much about stopping their use while driving.
Yavin4
(35,442 posts)The younger generation has grown up texting 24/7. They won't be able to pay attention to the road. Self driving cars allows people to drive and text.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)the disabled. My husband is legally blind, and we don't live near a bus stop. He depends on me to drive him to either his destination or at the very least the nearest bus station. My father is also losing more and more of his sight as he ages and he has not given up driving yet so he is becoming an increasing danger on the road. autonomous cars would be great for both my husband and my father. I think the young may not want one because a lot of young people have rejected owning a lot of things lately. Most young people don't want to own a car or a house.
Shandris
(3,447 posts)...that the car spontaneously combusted for no reason whatsoever, which clearly indicates that he took an explosive in and detonated it intentionally while driving at a high rate of speed. Google's logs confirm this, but they can't be shown because they're proprietary. And now sports."
Yeah, having trouble thinking of reasons people might not trust remote controlled vehicles.
Heeeeers Johnny
(423 posts)But myself... I have zero interest in adopting it.
Cut and paste from the other thread regarding this ...
conditions and locations, but whatever they come up with, it will never come even close to the capabilities
and decision making with a human operator behind the wheel.
Is that a rock, chunk of wood or is it a paper cup, piece of cardboard in the road?
Will it know where those little known prime parking spaces are located?
Does it like parking at the front of the lot or the back of the lot?
Will it like to park in the shady spot, or the sunny spot?
Can it spot when someone has gotten into a vehicle and is about to leave?
Can it anticipate when is the best time to change over to the right or left lane?
Does it know when it's better to avoid the left or right lane altogether?
Will it park back in or face forward?
Will it recognize and overly conform to the signage of local (public or private), and municipal
parking/driving ordinances?
What's it going to do when traffic/street/parking lines are faded or non-existent?
What's it going to do when those lines are covered with snow?
What's it's favorite short cut. Bonus points for knowing at what time of day?
Is it going to slow down (and perhaps stop), when the occupants spots something interesting (and I don't' mean
rubbernecking at an accident scene)?
Etc... etc... etc.
I really want no part of this.
I hope the technology dies on the vine like Google Glass did.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027867250#post9
Avalux
(35,015 posts)I don't think I could handle being the 'driver' of an automated car. It would completely freak me out.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)... "Why would you want a computer in your home... most people don't want one"
FrodosPet
(5,169 posts)Personally, I see a great need for the technology. It will save lives. It will offer greater mobility to shut-ins. I am going all in.
At the same time, it WILL be disruptive. People will be hurt and killed who would not be until it is very mature. And millions of people around the world will be financially destroyed if truck, bus, taxi, and rideshare jobs are eliminated.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)Every-time we hit turbulence I think, ya know, if it were me flying I would put down somewhere until this nastiness stops. But there you are 30,000 feet in the air and not the slightest bit of control over whats happening.
I think it will save more lives than it takes and pretty quickly. There are a massive amount of auto fatalities per year and almost all of them because of human error.
whatthehey
(3,660 posts)I don't feed in 0s and 1s and decide which processor any given bit of code runs on. I just tell the computer to navigate to website X or make Excel give me the result of a formula. In other words I tell my computer what result I want and trust that it is far more capable of managing the means to that end than I am.
It's not like autonomous cars will decide when you should go to the store or whether you should take a trip to Chicago or Des Moines instead this weekend. You decide where you want to go, tell the car and it gets you there, just like a computer does for users.
30,000 people get killed every year in the US with human drivers. If it's 20,000 with autonomous cars that's a big gain.
Farriers who had common sense became mechanics. Taxi drivers have the highest homicide rate of any profession; it's hard, and pointless, to kill an autonomous vehicle software installation.
Chan790
(20,176 posts)saying "There's no way laws will ever be passed making seat-belts mandatory. The public doesn't want these laws and there will be too much resistance."
By 1985, it was over in most states and the number of people that had supported the laws never broke 10%. The insurance and automotive industries wanted the laws and expended the capital to insure they got their way.
This is going to go the same way. Ford, Google and State Farm are going to have a say...the public is not.
Logical
(22,457 posts)One_Life_To_Give
(6,036 posts)And don't need the extra hours every day to level?
TeamPooka
(24,229 posts)jmowreader
(50,560 posts)You're a high mucky-muck in some Big Oligarchic Corporation who has to go out of town to a trade show, and you're going to spend the day after the show seeing the sights before you go home. Rather than hauling along your GPS and a city map - or spending half your time lost - you upload the list of places you're going to be staying, working, dining and so on to We-Drive-U Luxury Rental Cars before you leave. When you get on the ground in your destination city, the car you are issued has "airport," "hotel," "convention center," "restaurants," "morning tour" and "afternoon tour" buttons on its touchscreen. Tap one, and the car takes you right there.
Most people would never want a self-drive car at home, but they'd love one in an unfamiliar city.
killbotfactory
(13,566 posts)Just tell everyone they can dick around on their smart phone the whole trip without killing anybody or themselves, and they'll change their mind.
Amishman
(5,557 posts)I'd love the option for putting it on autodriver for my commute home and doze off while it takes me home after a tough day.
I generally enjoy driving, so I would insist on being able to drive it myself if I chose.