New Jersey residents have good reason to be concerned about safety on the roads and highways. Every year, too many people are killed or are seriously injured in accidents. Many of those accidents are caused by reckless choices made by drivers. That fact is part of what makes many promote the development and use of autonomous cars. By taking the human factor out of driving, some assert that the roads will be safer than they are today.
A new survey released by AAA indicates that not very many consumers in the United States are so convinced that autonomous vehicles are actually trustworthy. In addition, the level of trust among consumers for the emerging self-driving vehicles has actually dropped instead of increased as the technology continues to advance.
As reported by Gizmodo, in the beginning part of 2017, a survey found that 78 percent of Americans were fearful of riding in an autonomous vehicle. Through that calendar year, it appears that trust grew as by the end of that year, only 63 percent of people surveyed indicated they would be too scared to ride in a self-driving car. One might assume that more people would continue to trust these vehicles as time moved forward but that did not happen.
A study recently released shows that trust has dropped as 71 percent of people said they would be too afraid of these vehicles to trust them. The reasons for this may vary but they could well include two fatal accidents that happened in 2018 when one passenger and one pedestrian died.