Older people have more concerns over safety and trust of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs), according to new research from the D-Risk consortium.
D-Risk, a £3m Innovate-UK funded project focusing on the development of software for safe AVs, studied the public’s perception as part of its community research survey.
The collaboration between dRisk.ai, Claytex, Imperial College London and DG Cities found that over half (56.1%) of people aged 18-34 think self-driving cars will be safer than human-driven vehicles, but only three in ten (30.3%) aged 55 and over agree.
Additionally, over a third (37.5%) of people aged 18-24 would use an AV tomorrow, but less than a quarter (23.3%) of people aged 75+ and above would.
One member of the focus group, said: “There might be potential for them to be safer than many drivers but it’s going to require a lot more work. But surely the safety standard they’re aiming for is zero collisions, and zero deaths, and until they get there there’s more work to do.”
The study also found that those without a driving licence were also more likely to want to ride in an AV (51.4%) than those with driving licences (34.0%). It also highlighted that many were still unsure of AVs with 28% undecided if they would be happy to ride in AVs in the near future.
The report concluded: “It is vital that the public is supported to play an active role in the development of future AV technologies.
“Our public engagement research shines a light on directly engaging the public in AV innovation and shows that there are groups that require tailored education, information and support to build their knowledge of AV technologies and the AI that operates them.”
