Americans Don’t Want Autonomous Cars

Automakers and tech companies keep talking about a Utopian future where nobody drives, but instead cars do it for us. While billions of dollars are poured into efforts to create this kind of technology, the reality is Americans aren’t interested in it.

Gallup released the results of a poll, and they’re pretty telling. Even if autonomous cars were common, three-quarters of those surveyed said they would still use a non-autonomous vehicle. Slightly over half said they would never want to get in a self-driving car.

Why would this be? After all, the great minds at so many companies in their wisdom seek to relieve everyone of the burden of driving. Everyone views it as a chore, right? Wrong. Gallup said 34 percent stated they enjoy driving “a great deal,” while another 44 percent said they enjoy it “a moderate amount.”

One’s attitude toward driving varies on location. City dwellers and those living in the suburbs are over twice as likely to own an autonomous vehicle versus those in small towns or rural areas. That’s just not surprising. For example, people in Southern California understandably are more likely to want to kick back and not deal with the mania on the road.

What was included in the survey was education level, with college graduates being over twice as likely to own a self-driving car.

Just because people aren’t hot on self-driving cars right now doesn’t mean attitudes won’t change. After all, not everyone was on board with smartphones when the iPhone first launched, but they’re ubiquitous today.

Source: Gallup