Only 18 per cent of Britons believe driverless cars to be an important development for the car industry to focus on

Only 18% of Britons believe driverless cars to be an important development for the car industry to focus on, according to the Ipsos Loyalty Automotive Survey.

Ipsos Loyalty’s Automotive Survey looks at Britons attitudes to cars and the technological developments surrounding the automotive industry, and what they want in the future from their cars. The survey shows that when it comes to technological developments, such as driverless cars, the public is not yet at a stage where this technology will be universally embraced.

The key findings on driverless cars were:

  • The public is yet to see the benefit of driverless cars - only 18% of the British public think that it is important for car manufacturers to focus on driverless technologies. 41% say it is unimportant.
  • Men are significantly more likely to deem it important than women - 23% of men see it as important compared to only 13% of women. Similarly, nearly half of women think it is unimportant (47%) compared to just over a third (36%) of men.
  • Older people (aged 55+) are less likely to embrace it than the youngest group (aged 16 – 24) – half (50%) of those aged 55 plus think it is unimportant compared to under a third of youngsters (30%).
  • They have a particular appeal to Londoners - 27% think it’s important. Urbanites in general are more likely to think this technology is important (23%)
  • Driverless cars hold significantly greater appeal to people who intend to buy a new car in the next three years.
  • They also hold significantly more allure to those who agree with the statement ‘I’m just not interested in cars’ (25%) – this indicates that driverless cars appeal to those who are not driving enthusiasts, whereas those who enjoy driving are less likely to embrace it.
  • Safety is far more important to motorists than new technology. So stressing the safety benefits of driverless (and increased convenience re better traffic flow) will make it an easier sell.

Driverless car technology was also tested as one of four key technological developments within the automotive industry, revealing safety to be the paramount concern over digital technological development. The key findings were:

  1. 50% of the public agreed that new technologies such as forward-collision avoidance systems and lane departure warning systems to make cars safer are the most important for manufacturers to focus on.
  2. 34% agreed that developing car to car communications so that vehicles can share real-time road conditions, thereby reducing accidents and delays is an important development for the industry to focus on.
  3. Only 18% agreed that the development of driverless technologies so that cars can sense their environment and navigate without human input, so freeing up driver time is important for car manufacturers to focus on
  4. Just 17% of the public feel that bringing the digital world into the car so it can connect with drivers’ smartphones and other devices, and allowing the driver to tailor the vehicle’s infotainment system by loading the apps they want to use is an important development to focus on.

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Technical Note

Ipsos Loyalty conducted 1,001 interviews with a national representative sample of the British public aged between 16 and 75 years old. The fieldwork was conducted between 26th June and 3rd July 2014.

Image: "google-driverless-cali" by Sam Churchill is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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