{"id":11393,"date":"2018-03-21T13:01:51","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T18:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/americans-had-concerns-about-self-driving-cars-before-fatal-arizona-accident\/"},"modified":"2024-11-18T15:48:32","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T20:48:32","slug":"americans-had-concerns-about-self-driving-cars-before-fatal-arizona-accident","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2018\/03\/21\/americans-had-concerns-about-self-driving-cars-before-fatal-arizona-accident\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans had concerns about self-driving cars before fatal Arizona accident"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even before a driverless Uber vehicle struck and killed<\/a> a pedestrian in Arizona this week, a slight majority of Americans said they were at least somewhat worried about the development of autonomous cars and hesitant about riding in one if given the chance.<\/p>\n\n

<\/figure>\n\n

Slightly more than half of U.S. adults (54%) said in a Pew Research Center survey<\/a> conducted in May 2017<\/a> that they were somewhat or very worried about the development of driverless vehicles, while 40% said they were at least somewhat enthusiastic about it. A majority of U.S. adults (56%) also said they would not personally want to ride in a driverless car if they had the opportunity, compared with 44% who would.<\/p>\n\n

The accident in Tempe, Arizona, was believed to be the first time a pedestrian had been killed in an incident involving a driverless car. In response, Uber announced it would suspend testing of driverless vehicles<\/a> in four North American cities where the ridesharing company had been piloting the technology: Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Tempe and Toronto.<\/p>\n\n

In the Center\u2019s 2017 survey, women were more likely than men to say they were at least somewhat worried about the development of driverless cars (63% vs. 44%) and that they would not personally want to ride in one (64% vs. 47%), as were adults with a high school diploma or less when compared with college graduates.<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

<\/figure>\n\n

The most common reasons cited by Americans who said they would not personally want to ride in a self-driving car were a lack of trust or fear of giving up control to a machine (42%) and other specific safety concerns (30%).<\/p>\n\n

Among those who said they would<\/em> want to ride in a self-driving car, the largest share (37%) cited a love of technology and\/or a desire for an exciting or new experience. Another 17% pointed to safety in the belief that a driverless car would be safer than a car driven by a human.<\/p>\n\n

Overall, around two-thirds of Americans (65%) said they expected most vehicles on the road to be autonomous sometime within the next half-century. The remainder either said they expect it to take 50 years or more for most cars on the road to become driverless, or that self-driving cars would never<\/em> account for most vehicles on the road.<\/p>\n\n

<\/figure>\n\n

The public was closely divided over the safety implications in the event that the use of autonomous cars becomes widespread. For instance, 39% of adults said that they anticipated that the number of people killed or injured in traffic accidents would decrease. Slightly fewer (30%) said traffic fatalities or injuries would increase, while 31% said that the number of deaths or injuries would stay about the same.<\/p>\n\n

There was wider agreement over rules and restrictions to govern the use of self-driving cars. Large majorities said they would favor requiring driverless cars to have a person in the driver\u2019s seat who could take control in an emergency situation (87%); restricting such vehicles to dedicated traffic lanes (83%); and restricting them from traveling near certain areas, such as schools (69%).<\/p>\n\n

States and the federal government have taken a variety of approaches<\/a> when it comes to regulating self-driving vehicles. In Arizona, the state recently stopped requiring<\/a> that autonomous cars be accompanied by a human driver, though the car involved in this week\u2019s crash did have a human driver inside.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year, a slight majority of Americans said they were at least somewhat worried about the development of autonomous cars and hesitant about riding in one if given the 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