BUMPY ROAD AHEAD FOR PUBLIC TRUST IN SELF-DRIVING CARS

By: AbdulAziz AlThabit

  For many, self-driving cars seem like the future of automobiles. This could fully come to reality as soon as the year 2020 comes around. They'll be capable of conveying people and items, from location to location, without a single hand on the steering wheel!

 But they do face vast concerns and skepticism. It was found in surveys, presented by the American Automobile Association, that 63 percent of people reported feeling frightened to ride in a fully autonomous car and many others stating that they would never be driven by a self-driving car.

   70 percent of people are also concerned about sharing the road with self-driving cars. – found in a study conducted by the Brookings Institution.

   That's regardless of the fact that around 94 percent of car crashes are caused by human error and that amongst the top three causes of traffic fatalities were speeding, drunk driving, and distracted driving. The National Safety Council has determined that the average Americans' likelihood of ending up a fatal car crash is one in 114.

   With all this in mind, what will it take to convince the skeptics to trust self-driving vehicles? To put it simply: a lot more testing.

   As an example, The RAND Corporation estimates that they will have to achieve 11 billion miles (in test driving) before we're presented with reliable statistics. In comparison, the 20 or so companies testing self-driving vehicles in California cooperatively only managed to rack up just over 1 million miles… in two years.

   Rushing these autonomous cars to the market may lead to numerous fatalities and injuries.

   In March, a semi-autonomous Tesla Model X crashed into a concrete wall, killing the 38-year-old man riding in the vehicle.

   All these factors would significantly discourage manufacturers from investing time and money into autonomous cars. And put an extensive way ahead for public trust in them.