On a long, boring commute, who wouldn’t want to kick back and let the car do all of the driving? Most people, according to recent research by The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI).
In a survey of more than 500 licensed drivers, UMTRI researchers found the majority preferred either partial or no self-driving automation. The biggest group—nearly 44%—preferred their vehicle have no self-driving capability, which means the driver would be in control of all safety-critical functions at all times (but assisted with more advanced technologies). Another 40.6% preferred partial automation, which would require occasional intervention by the driver.
Less than 16% preferred a completely self-driving vehicle, meaning the car could travel by itself, without a person on board. This attitude could challenge the efforts of self-driving-vehicle proponents such as Google, which has been testing the technology since 2009 and has more than two dozen cars on the road in California and Texas.
Some other interesting highlights of the UMTRI survey:
- Women were most likely to prefer no self-driving, while men were likely to want partial capability.
- The older the driver, the less the preference for vehicle automation.
- More than 68% of drivers said they would be “very” or “moderately concerned” about riding in a completely self-driving car, compared to only 10.6% who were not worried at all.
- Most drivers were about split between touch screens (preferred by 37.8%) and voice command (36.2%) in their preferred method for inputting route or destination information. Female and older drivers were more likely to prefer voice control, while male and younger drivers were more likely to favor touch screens.
- More than 96% of all drivers, regardless of their comfort level with automation, preferred that a 100% self-driving vehicle had at least a steering wheel with gas and brake pedals, or similar controls.
Despite these control issues, there is another way to look at the data: More than 56% of drivers were comfortable with at least some level of automation. A continuation of this trend could have big implications for vehicle ownership and miles traveled.
According to an analysis of U.S. National Household Travel Survey data by UMTRI, strong adoption of self-driving vehicles could trim the average vehicle ownership rates from 2.1 to 1.2 vehicles per household. However, this same move could boost individual vehicle usage by 75%.
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