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FrodosPet

(5,169 posts) Wed May 25, 2016, 12:12 PM May 2016

U.S. consumers buck investors' rush to self-driving cars : study

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-tech-selfdriving-idUSKCN0YE1TE

BY PAUL LIENERT - Mon May 23, 2016 10:09am EDT

U.S. consumers still resist the notion of self-driving cars, according to a University of Michigan study released on Monday, the latest sign that investors and automakers may be rushing into a business where demand is limited at best.

~ snip ~

Consumers, meanwhile, remain concerned about aspects of self-driving technology and "overwhelmingly" still want the ability to manually control a self-driving vehicle, the study said.

"The most frequent preference for vehicle automation continues to be for no self-driving capability," said the study's authors, Brandon Schoettle and Michael Sivak.

~ snip ~

Nearly 95 percent of respondents said they wanted to have a steering wheel plus gas and brake pedals so they could take control of a self-driving vehicle when desired, the study found.

~ snip ~

3 replies

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U.S. consumers buck investors' rush to self-driving cars : study (Original Post) FrodosPet May 2016 OP

not me. Javaman May 2016 #1

I want my self driving car to be wide enough for a cot and tall enough for a shower stall Bucky May 2016 #2

I am sure people in 1995 weren't rushing to adopt music files either whatthehey May 2016 #3

Javaman

(62,531 posts)

1. not me.

Reply to FrodosPet (Original post)

Wed May 25, 2016, 12:23 PM

May 2016

I want to sleep on the way to work.

Bucky

(54,032 posts)

2. I want my self driving car to be wide enough for a cot and tall enough for a shower stall

Reply to FrodosPet (Original post)

Wed May 25, 2016, 12:36 PM

May 2016

and have a strong enough engine that it can tow a portable basketball court behind me on my way to and from work.

Then I won't even need a house.

whatthehey

(3,660 posts)

3. I am sure people in 1995 weren't rushing to adopt music files either

Reply to FrodosPet (Original post)

Wed May 25, 2016, 12:55 PM

May 2016

And yet twenty years later they are ubiquitous and accepted by all but silly bare-footed badger-bearded twenty-somethings with man-buns, and a handful of Luddite hobbyists. Fountain pen users in 1935 sneered at the idea of ball-points becoming normal too.

Convenience will always win in the mass marketplace, but only after it can be demonstrated and experienced. I probably won't see self-driving cars become the norm, but I hope to see them affordable for second-wave early adopters, in whose numbers I shall be.

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