Cox Survey: Support for Self-Driving Cars Declines

Almost half of Americans would not purchase a fully automated vehicle, part of a trend of declining support for self-driving cars in a new survey.

Key results in the Cox Automotive survey on the use of autonomous vehicles:

• 49 percent of Americans said they would never buy a level 5, or full autonomous, car. That figure was at 30 percent two years ago.
• 39 percent of millennials said they would never buy a fully autonomous car.
• 84 percent of Americans want to have the option of manually driving a car even if it has self-driving properties.
• 16 percent said they would be OK with letting a car completely drive itself with them in the driver's seat.
• 54 percent said semi-autonomous vehicles, which contain sensors and other systems to warn drivers, make people better drivers.

"As awareness around the development of autonomous technology increases, we're seeing some dramatic shifts in consumer sentiment," Karl Brauer, executive publisher of Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book, said in a news release.

"People now have a deeper understanding of the complexities involved when creating a self-driving car, and that has them reconsidering their comfort level when it comes to handing over control."

Several car and tech companies are testing self-driving cars, including Tesla, Google, Volvo, and Apple. There have been several deadly accidents involving the vehicles in recent years.

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