The majority of Americans do not trust self-driving vehicles, according to a recent Gallup poll seen on Hill TV’s “What America’s Thinking.”
Fifty-nine percent of Americans said they were uncomfortable with self-driving cars, while only 23 percent of those polled said they were comfortable with the vehicles.
The poll comes as the U.S. prepares for increased use of autonomous vehicles.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill spoke last month with transportation experts on the work to be done to improve both roads and the safety technology behind self-driving vehicles.
Experts have cited various benefits from driverless cars, including a reduction in traffic and more safety on the roads.
“More than 90 percent of road crashes are caused in some way by human error. That is a sobering statistic but we have technologies that will make a difference,” Shailen Bhatt, president and CEO of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, said last month.
However, other experts, including the commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation, Polly Trottenberg, have expressed concerns over the impacts autonomous vehicles will have on city and national highway structures.
“It’s simply not realistic or feasible to expect cities to overhaul their existing roadway infrastructure to accommodate a still somewhat unproven technology,” Trottenberg said.
— Julia Manchester
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