Tesla & Co.: According to the AutoPacific study, this is how much trust consumers have in autonomous driving

AutoPacific surveyed 600 drivers between the ages of 18 and 80

40 percent of the younger respondents would feel comfortable with autonomous vehicles

Tesla enjoys the highest level of customer trust among the car brands

AutoPacific study

Various vehicle manufacturers are working on the development of autonomous vehicles. But are consumers ready to give up the wheel? And which car brands are most trusted when it comes to autonomous driving? AutoPacific, a US market research and product advisory firm, released a study in March examining consumer perceptions of fully autonomous vehicle technology. A total of 600 registered drivers between the ages of 18 and 80 were asked about topics such as responsibility for insurance, accident liability, willingness to pay and familiar car brands in connection with autonomous driving as part of the study.

Younger generations are more open to autonomous driving

Just 29 percent of those surveyed stated that they would feel comfortable in their own autonomous vehicle in the future. Slightly fewer (26 percent) said they would be comfortable as a passenger in someone else’s fully autonomous vehicle. AutoPacific President and Chief Analyst Ed Kim explains that autonomous driving is a technology that people would need to see and experience for a few years to become comfortable with it. Overall, the study shows that most consumers want to wait until proven reliability before adopting this technology.

It is also clear that younger generations are much more open to autonomous driving than older ones. When asked how comfortable they would be driving their own fully autonomous vehicle, 40 percent of those aged 18 to 29 said they would be comfortable, while only 18 percent of drivers aged 18 and over said they would be 60 years and older said the same thing. In addition, 47 percent of respondents aged 18 to 29 said they would be comfortable with a fully autonomous vehicle taking evasive action itself in an emergency. For drivers aged 30 to 39, it was only around 29 percent and for drivers aged 60 and older it was only around 20 percent of those surveyed. There were also clear differences between the generations when it came to the question of whether there would be more or fewer accidents on the roads with autonomous driving. Overall, 24 percent of those surveyed believed that there would be fewer accidents, but among drivers between the ages of 18 and 29, a full 41 percent believed that there would be fewer accidents with autonomous driving.

These car brands have the greatest customer confidence

There are currently no fully autonomous vehicles for sale, but some vehicle manufacturers, including Tesla, Ford and Toyota, are already offering more comprehensive ADAS suites that enable semi-autonomous driving on approved roads under ideal, safe conditions. However, when it comes to the development of fully autonomous vehicles, there is a clear winner in terms of customer trust. At 32 percent, Tesla enjoys the highest level of customer trust for the development of safe and reliable fully autonomous vehicles. As AutoPacific explains, this may also be due to the media attention paid to the automaker’s expensive and controversial full-self-driving driver assistance technology. The Japanese car manufacturer Toyota is in second place with 19 percent. Third place in terms of customer trust goes to the German car manufacturer BMW with 18 percent.

At 13 percent, trust in the US tech giant Apple to develop a safe and reliable fully autonomous vehicle is not exactly low either, considering that the company has not yet brought a vehicle to market.

E. Schmal / Editor finanzen.net

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