The findings showed 82 per cent of Australians recognise that driverless vehicles will provide greater mobility for people with driving impairments and just under three quarters ( 73 per cent ) wanted an autonomous car to transport them when they feel physically or mentally unable to drive manually . Lead researcher Professor Michael Regan , Chief Scientist-Human Factors at the Australian Road Research Board ( ARRB Group ), said , “ it ’ s just under a year since ADVI led the first trial of autonomous cars on Australian roads , and fully driverless vehicles aren ’ t yet even available to the public , but the Australian public is already quite advanced in its thinking .”
“ ADVI ’ s preliminary findings show the majority of the Australian community is already willing to trust self-driving cars in situations where they don ’ t feel capable to drive or when they would simply rather not because it ’ s boring or they ’ re in traffic .
“ Given the lack of community interaction with self-driving cars todate , it ’ s encouraging that almost half ( 47 per cent ) of the Australian population believe they will be safer than human drivers .”
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76 % agreed they would want to use a driverless vehicle when they were tired or fatigued . |
Prof Regan said the fact that a quarter disagree driverless cars will be safer , and a quarter remain undecided highlights the importance of continued community education by governments and industry to ensure the safety benefits are communicated and individual incidents don ’ t delay their safe introduction onto Australian roads .
Interestingly for vehicle manufacturers , the research found that more than half ( 62 per cent ) of Australians think they shouldn ’ t need to pay more for autonomous technology ; but of those willing to spend more , they would invest an additional AU $ 8,977 on average for a fully-automated car .
Highlights of the preliminary findings released by ADVI include :
• 76 % agreed they would want to use a driverless vehicle when they were tired or fatigued .
• 69 % would rather a driverless vehicle take over when driving was “ boring or monotonous ” and 60 % when there was traffic congestion .
• 61 % said they would prefer to hand over control to a self-driving car when they felt uncomfortable driving manually , but only 25 % said they they ’ d use a driverless car
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to pick up their kids .
• The most likely activity Australians said they would spend their time doing in driverless cars was observing scenery ( 78 %) followed by interacting with passengers ( 76 %).
• 52 % would use the time to rest but only 28 % said they would be likely to sleep in a driverless car .
Many Australians are also keen to make their daily commuting more productive with 36 per cent saying they would spend their reclaimed driving time doing work .
The 80-question survey was designed by ADVI ’ s Scientific Working Group and approved by the human ethics committee at the University of NSW .
It provides the most in-depth insight into Australians ’ perceptions of driverless vehicles to date and form the baseline for ADVI ’ s proposed annual survey .
The research comes on the back of an economic report released by ADVI last month , which found Australia could unlock $ 95 billion a year in economic value and generate 16,000 new jobs by taking a more proactive approach to the introduction of autonomous vehicles in Australia .
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Demand for autonomous vehicles could soon see cars such as this concept from BMW on our roads |