Companies are betting big on self-driving cars, but whether the market will follow suit remains to be seen.
A Deloitte survey of 22,000 consumers in 17 different countries found that there’s a big trust issue when it comes to the technology. A surprising number of people don’t trust any of the companies currently working on self-driving cars and are waiting for a new player to enter the space.
Of those surveyed, 47% said they trusted traditional car manufacturers to bring the vehicles to market. But 33% said they would trust a new autonomous specialist or company to make self-driving cars a reality.
The survey bodes especially poorly for tech giants like Google’s Waymo, as only 20% of people surveyed said they would trust an existing tech company to safely execute on the futuristic vehicles.
“For all the media coverage of groundbreaking autonomous vehicle investments made to date, a surprising number of US consumers are still looking for a new, focused player to enter this market,” Deloitte wrote in its study.
The survey also found the majority of US buyers (77% to be exact) rarely or never use ride-hailing services like Uber or Lyft. As the report notes, this is likely because the services aren’t as popular in suburban areas where people rely on more constant access to a vehicle to get around.
That could place a dent in traditional automakers’ plans, even if they’ve secured more trust.
Ford plans to introduce self-driving cars as part of a ride-hailing fleet, and General Motors plans to use Lyft to introduce its first self-driving vehicles.
Uber is also working on a robot taxi service, and Google’s Waymo may follow suit.
In fairness, consumers may be wary to trust companies in the space because they have yet to interact with the cars in a real-world setting. Uber and Waymo have both launched public demos, presumably to get an early start on swaying public opinion while testing the tech in a real-world setting.
But the survey shows companies still have a long way to go in convincing people to embrace autonomous vehicles.
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