Deloitte Study: Trust in AD Technology is on the Rise

Acceptance for autonomous car technology has been increasing recently which is important for the industry. If nobody trusts the technology there will be no one to buy it. Autonomous driving is not only about benefits but also about challenges. Above all driverless cars shall contribute to higher road safety but experts fear the threat of hacking attacks and car manipulation.
In this environment you frequently find studies that ask for consumer opinions. Recent research shows that consumer confidence is climbing – this could be a result of growing PR and advertising expenses for autonomous vehicles. In the course of showcasing and testing events more and more people get to experience the technology. It can be assumed that this is another factor for the growing trust.

Lately Deloitte published the 2018 edition of its annual “Global Automotive Consumer Study”. Judging from last and this year’s data you can draw the conclusion that consumer trust in autonomous driving is on the way up. The requirements for consumer confidence stays the same as in 2017 – users demand functionality. If latter can be assured, 59% of the polled people would enter an autonomous vehicle. In 2017 67% were rather sceptical towards autonomous driving, that number shrank to 41%. On average 64% of the surveyed consumers are willing to spend extra money for driverless car technology – in the US and Japan is way below the average with around 40%. In Germany at least every second person could imagine to make additional expenses for autonomous vehicles.

The study also identified several obstacles that delay the complete implementation of the technology. These include large investments needed from the companies and a missing legal basis for autonomous driving. If there are no clear legal principles autonomous cars will unlikely penetrate the whole society. However, Deloitte expects the movement to pick up high speed once the legal issues are solved.

Autonomous cars won’t break brand loyalty – so says the study. Especially in countries where many large car manufacturers have their origin like Germany, Japan and the US people pledge loyalty to traditional carmakers. Nevertheless, apart from Japan, Asian consumers tend to consider less established companies. Only a third of the surveyed users from Asia would consider a traditional car manufacturer.

David Fluhr is journalist and owner of the digital magazine “Autonomes Fahren & Co”. He is reporting regularly about trends and technologies in the fields Autonomous Driving, HMI, Telematics and Robotics. Link to his site: http://www.autonomes-fahren.de