The promise of totally self-driving vehicles stays elusive. That is perhaps an excellent factor, a minimum of going by a brand new research from AAA that discovered nearly all of individuals are really afraid of autonomous autos. Even extra stunning: That quantity has elevated in recent times whereas public belief has fallen.

According to AAA, 66 p.c of respondents mentioned they feared self-driving autos. That’s up from 55 p.c in 2022, however down from 68 p.c final 12 months. The share of those that belief AVs held regular from 2023 to 2024 at 9 p.c, whereas 25 p.c have been not sure of them. Both numbers are down from 15 and 30 p.c, respectively, in 2022.

While consumers is perhaps weary of robotic vehicles, they aren’t against some technological help behind the wheel. Respondents mentioned they have been thinking about some know-how, with greater than half open to computerized braking, reverse computerized braking, and lane maintain help. Only 42 p.c have been thinking about energetic driving help, and 49 p.c have been for adaptive cruise management.

Buyers ought to be skeptical of even these driver aids, nevertheless, as one other AAA research found that they aren’t at all times dependable. The group lately researched the effectiveness of computerized rear braking programs, and only one out of 40 test runs ended without a crash. Half of the vehicles did not cease for stationary pedestrians standing behind the car.

Most consumers received’t have to fret about autonomous autos anytime quickly. General Motors’ Cruise division has faced significant safety hurdles over the previous couple of months, and it seems that Google’s Waymo is without doubt one of the remaining outfits placing in a full effort to develop the know-how. It expanded its robotaxi service to Los Angeles right now, however the tech remains to be years away from making it into on a regular basis passenger autos.