The Biggest Barrier to Driverless Vehicle Adoption: Human Acceptance?

Here are just a few stats from some surveys that have been conducted recently:

• In the United Kingdom, 73% of people would not give up driving in exchange for a driverless car and 38% of people would not likely buy a driverless car even if they were accessible and the same price as regular cars. (source)
• In a survey of people from 10 countries around the world, 58% say they would take a ride in a fully self-driving car (source)
• In a survey of Americans, a slight majority of adults under 30 are excited by the future of self-driving cars, compared to 40 percent who are worried. The attitudes of those over 65 are very different: just 19 percent say they’re excited about self-driving cars, while 71 percent are worried (source)

You get the idea…  While the survey questions, timing, and audiences were varied, it’s clear that people have significant concerns with riding in and/or purchasing a driverless vehicle.  This makes sense: driverless vehicles have been a fantasy concept in movies for years (see Disney’s Magic Highway and Total Recall, as examples); I’m not sure anyone expected to see them on our roadways in our lifetime.  I believe the only way to get past this barrier is to actually change people’s perceptions of driverless vehicles….from a concept to a reality.  This means that people need to be able to see and touch them!  Singapore, Pittsburgh, and London have taken great steps forward by doing exactly that and I expect many other cities to follow in the coming months and years. I’ll be curious to see if those cities’ comparable survey responses change more quickly than others.

The private sector is motivated to get these driverless vehicles out quickly, but what can the government do to help advance human’s acceptance?  Pilot programs (Bishop Ranch) and test sites (GoMentum Station and MCity) are just a couple of examples.  Do you have any other ideas?