Motorists have severe doubts about whether driverless car
technology is likely to become commonplace in 20 years’ time and
many would rather see the Government focusing more time and
effort on sorting out the country’s roads in preparation for
them.
The Government has allocated £69m to developing connected and
autonomous vehicles as it is keen to give the UK the best chance
of being at the forefront of this technology race.
Research conducted with 2,194 members of the RAC Opinion Panel
shows that only 5% of motorists think the Government should be
prioritising financial support for the development of driverless
vehicle technology in the current economic climate, though a
further 17% support investment in this area but don’t see it as
an immediate priority.
Four in 10 (39%) would prefer to see the funds redirected to
improving the existing road infrastructure and a further quarter
(27%) claim the money would be better spent on what they regard
as more pressing needs such as health and education.
Motorists are sceptical about whether the technology will become
a reality with four in 10 (40%) believing the chances of there
being one million driverless vehicles on the UK’s roads by 2037
to be ‘a bit pie in the sky' and that it will actually take far
longer for that number of driverless cars to appear on the UK’s
roads.
Just under a third (31%) think there is an outside chance the
numbers could reach that level in 20 years whereas a cynical 17%
believe they won’t live long enough to see one million driverless
cars on the UK’s roads. Only one in 10 (12%), however, are
optimistic that it will happen.
The biggest concern among motorists about driverless cars is
unequivocally the reliability of the software controlling the
vehicle with almost half (46%) of those surveyed by the RAC
identifying this as their top concern. For more than a quarter
(27%), the thought of losing personal control over their vehicles
was top of the list, and a further 10% ranked the fear of
cyber-attacks leading to remote theft or corruption of data as
their number-one concern.
There was an expectation from around a third (31%) of respondents
that the biggest benefit of autonomous vehicles would come from
making journeys safer by eradicating driver error. The next two
on the ranking list of predicted greatest positives – both on 16%
– were the environment benefits brought about by reducing
emissions and optimising fuel economy, and a reduction in stress
and incidents of driver conflict such as road rage.
There was also broad agreement about the journey towards
driverless vehicles being a gradual one – ‘evolution rather than
revolution’. Two in five motorists (39%) believe manufacturers
will progressively introduce more and more semi-autonomous
features over time so there will not be a step change in safety
benefits when full autonomy is finally achieved.
RAC chief engineer David Bizley said: “Very understandably
motorists have a range of questions and concerns about driverless
cars. There is clearly some widespread scepticism about the
technology becoming prevalent and some concerns over reliability
which are no doubt based on motorists’ everyday experiences of
computers and the lack of resilience of the software they use.
“Finding out that around half of motorists would rather see the
money the Government has allocated to encourage the development
of driverless cars used to improve the condition of the roads
they drive on is perhaps not a great surprise. But the £69
million allocated for driverless car support is very small when
compared to the funding made available annually for the
maintenance of both the strategic and local road networks.”
Despite a degree of scepticism about fully autonomous vehicles,
motorists remain enthusiastic about the driver assistance
technologies that are available today. Nearly half (45%) of
drivers surveyed said they were attracted by adaptive cruise
control – technology that automatically brakes and accelerates
the vehicle when trying to maintain a pre-set cruising speed to
take account of other traffic slowing or speeding up. More than a
third (36%) liked self-parking systems that carry out manoeuvres
such as parallel parking autonomously and 34% were attracted by
automatic emergency braking, a feature that many road safety
campaigners, including the RAC, would like to see as standard on
all new vehicles.
To date the Government has launched a £30 million Intelligent
Mobility Fund for research and development of innovative
connected and autonomous vehicle technologies. It also awarded
£20 million to a number of projects to ensure the UK is able to
take advantage of the latest technological developments in
driverless cars research. In addition, a £19 million fund was
ring-fenced to pave the way for driverless car projects in
Greenwich, Bristol, Milton Keynes and Coventry. Additionally, the
Government outlined proposals in the recent Queen’s Speech on
autonomous vehicle technology and the associated questions
regarding liability.
Ends
Notes to Editors
* Research carried out online among 2,194 members of the RAC
Opinion Panel.
