US Consumers ‘Excited’ About Benefits of Autonomous Cars, CTA Survey Finds

U.S. consumers are “excited” about autonomous cars and the benefits they could provide, and most want to “swap their current cars for completely self-driving vehicles,” a CTA study found. CTA canvassed online in July 2,001 adults who drove a car or truck in the past month and found 70 percent have a “strong interest” in testing a driverless car, it said in a Friday report. CTA also found 62 percent of those polled are interested in replacing their current cars or trucks with completely self-driving vehicles, it said. Other findings: (1) More than eight in 10 consumers (82 percent) agreed with the proposition that autonomous cars can “reduce accidents caused by aggressive driving or driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol”; (2) Slightly fewer think driverless cars will bring “monetary savings” on car insurance (80 percent), will prevent up to 90 percent of driving-related accidents and injuries on U.S. roads (79 percent) or offer “new mobility options” for people with disabilities (78 percent). “We don’t have to wait for the benefits of self-driving cars to arrive,” said CTA President Gary Shapiro in a statement. “Driver-assist technology is already saving lives, avoiding accidents and paving the way for completely driverless innovations still to come. We should promote these technologies that help drowsy or inattentive drivers stay focused, or provide specific responses such as automatic braking and lane-drift avoidance -- all of which are now widely available in newer model vehicles.”