{"id":115519,"date":"2017-04-18T14:26:16","date_gmt":"2017-04-18T18:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=115519"},"modified":"2017-04-18T14:26:16","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T18:26:16","slug":"most-american-consumers-remain-wary-of-autonomous-vehicles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2017\/04\/most-american-consumers-remain-wary-of-autonomous-vehicles\/","title":{"rendered":"Most American Consumers Remain Wary of Autonomous Vehicles"},"content":{"rendered":"
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More and more autonomous prototypes are on the road, but consumers remain skeptical.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you listen to the experts, the coming age of the autonomous automobile will all but eliminate crashes and fatalities on U.S. roadways. But American consumers aren\u2019t quite so confident. According to the new J.D. Power Tech Choice Study, motorists are wary of hands-free driving.<\/p>\n

At the same time, they have become increasingly receptive to the flood of new, semi-autonomous advanced driver assistance system, or ADAS, technologies \u2013 such as forward collision warning and blind-spot detection \u2013 that are showing up on more and more of the latest vehicles.<\/p>\n

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Subscribe & Stay on Top!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIn most cases, as technology concepts get closer to becoming reality, consumer curiousity and acceptance increase,\u201d said Kristin Kolodge, executive director of driver interaction and HMI research at J.D. Power and Associates. \u201cWith autonomous vehicles, we see a pattern where trust\u2026in the technology\u2026is declining.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Who is leading the race to bring autonomous vehicles to market? To find out, <\/strong><\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/strong>.)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/em>The only exception is among Millennials who still show a strong level of interest in autonomous technology, according to the Tech Choice Study. The level of trust has even declined among the youngest group of motorists, so-called Gen-Z, over the past year.<\/p>\n

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Reports of incidents like this recent crash of an Uber autonomous prototype may be causing concern among American motorists.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Exactly why isn\u2019t clear, though it could reflect publicity surrounding a series of incidents involving autonomous prototypes and semi-autonomous vehicles already on the road \u2013 such as the Tesla Model S that crashed into a truck in Florida in May 2016, killing former Navy SEAL Joshua Brown.<\/p>\n

It may also reflect the fact that autonomous vehicles are in the news more than ever now, said Kolodge, and consumers don\u2019t have enough personal experience with the technology to feel comfortable with it yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell you 100 percent I won\u2019t ever own one of those cars,\u201d said Kaila Ellis, a 23-year-old student at Michigan\u2019s Northwood University, who attended a news conference sponsored by the Detroit Automotive Press Association to discuss the Tech Choice Study\u2019s results.<\/p>\n

Whether that will change is far from certain, though Power\u2019s Kolodge suggested that as consumers become more familiar with autonomous driving technology they may become more open to it.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s clear is that \u201cWe\u2019re going to see a seismic change in what a vehicle is and what it does,\u201d said Power Vice President Dave Sargent. Despite concerns about fully autonomous vehicles, he noted, the Tech Choice study found that American drivers are becoming more and more open to features that could be described as semi-autonomous, as well as other high tech systems.<\/p>\n

In fact, offered a choice of new technologies, advanced driver assistance systems accounted for seven of the top 10 choices. The five most popular were:<\/p>\n