Do Consumers Want Driverless Cars?
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Most major automakers—and, of course, Google—are pushing forward with a variety of driverless-car efforts. The US National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) describes four levels of autonomy. Progress is notable on Levels 1 (Function-Specific Automation) and 2 (Combined-Function Automation). Technical challenges abound with Levels 3 (Limited Self-Driving Capabilities) and 4 (Fully Self-Driving Automation), but they are the research and development goals for many players in the autonomous space.
Given all the excitement in the automobile industry, a big question is, Do consumers want self-driving vehicles? Associated questions include, Will they be able to afford them? Will there be strong consumer demand for certain autonomous functions and only minimal demand for others? To what extent will consumers replace their traditional cars with driverless ones and in what time frame? Will driverless cars be as common as traditionally owned second cars? Or will new business models take hold and make driverless cars mostly on-demand options?
Strategic Business Insights' VALS™'s recent research into Americans' attitudes about their cars offers insight into how the diffusion of driverless cars in consumer markets might play out. For example, nearly 24% of US adults indicate that they are OK with giving up control in a car if doing so would prevent a collision. The most innovative Americans (VALS Innovators) were more enthusiastic than average: Some 35% of them approved of the idea, as did younger self-expressive consumers (VALS Experiencers). Less popular with Americans was the idea of a car that could automatically take control from the driver and park itself. Only 17% of US adults overall thought self-parking was desirable. But VALS Innovators as well as the same self-expressive Experiencers segment were considerably more enthusiastic about this capability. More than a quarter of each of these groups agreed that they'd like a self-parking car.
Most people have difficulty in imagining what it would be like to use a product or service that no one has invented yet, so it's not surprising that only 15% of US adults said they wanted to ride in a driverless car. Most people need not only to see a new product but also to see other people whom they know or respect buy and use it. The more expensive the new item, the longer the adoption process generally takes. But most people are not all people, and characteristically, Innovators and self-expressive Experiencers—about 20% of all US adults—are considerably more interested in a driverless ride than are other Americans. They are also much more practiced in thinking about the future and imagining themselves living in it with new functionalities. Nearly a fifth of each of these two groups say they see obvious benefits to driverless versus traditional cars.
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