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5.0
The car of the future
Uncertainty and a lack of
information can also stimulate
other emotions and a majority
of motorists (62%) confess to
being scared by the thought of
driverless cars on the road.
The Report also quizzed drivers
about their attitudes to existing
in-car technology and their
responses contrast sharply with
those for fully autonomous vehicles.
There is widespread agreement
(84%) that cars are safer today than
in the past while 63% believe that
driver-assistance technologies
such as lane-departure warning
or blind-spot monitoring are
making roads less hazardous.
In terms of technology that records
how well people are driving, for
example via the black box
recorders used in telematics
insurance policies, there has been
a marked shift in acceptance
compared to 2010. Back then, the
majority of motorists (58%) were
opposed to any technology that
allowed other people to monitor
the movements of their vehicle
whereas in 2016 only 33% of
motorists say they are against
such devices recording how well
they are driving.
There is less opposition (23%) to
systems which record data and
images in the period before and
during accidents, but resistance
to such technology has increased
slightly on the 21% seen in the
2015 Report.
The lessons are clear: where
motorists understand technologies
and value the benefits, they will
welcome them and adopt them
enthusiastically. But if the benefits
of a new technology are poorly
defined and users cannot easily
place a value on them, there is a
risk that such technologies will not
appeal to mass markets and that
take-up will be confined to a small
number of technology enthusiasts.
RAC call to action:
Autonomous vehicles: see page 91
84
%
of drivers are in agreement
that cars are safer today than
in the past
23
%
of motorists are opposed to
systems which record data
and images in the period
before and during accidents
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RAC Report on Motoring 2016