Autonomous vehicles: consumer acceptance on the rise?

In addition to the technological and legal challenges facing the development of autonomous vehicles, consumer acceptance represents a critical barrier to adoption.  While consumer attitudes to autonomous vehicles appear to have been rocked following a number of high profile safety incidents in 2018, a recent study suggests that over half of global consumers still want to adopt a self-driving vehicle within the next five years.

Following a survey of over 5,500 consumers and 280 executives from automotive OEMs, suppliers and tech companies from around the world, the Capgemini Research Institute made the following findings in its report "The autonomous car: a consumer perspective":

• Acceptance of self-driving cars is growing, with 52% of global consumers preferring to be driven in a self-driving than a normal one within 5 years
• Urban consumers have the most positive outlook towards self-driving vehicles
• More than half of consumers (56%) would be willing to pay a premium of up to 20% for a self-driving car
• Over 70% of consumers view vehicle and system safety as key barriers to adoption
• Executives overestimate consumers' comfort with sharing personal data with organisations

The full report, which will make interesting reading for companies involved in the autonomous vehicle ecosystem, is available here.