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Americans still deeply skeptical about driverless cars: poll

Americans still deeply skeptical about driverless cars: poll

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64 percent are concerned about sharing the road with self-driving cars

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Amid the daily cacophony of news and announcements about self-driving cars — Have you heard? They’re coming! — it’s easy to lose sight of a fundamental truth: most people still don’t know what to think about this new technology. What they do feel, however, is that Congress and the federal government should impose minimum safety requirements on these vehicles before they hit the road in mass numbers. But lawmakers and regulators in Washington appear poised to do just the opposite, and that has safety advocates up in arms.

A new poll was released today basically repeats data that we’ve seen in previous surveys: Americans still don’t trust self-driving cars, and are nervous about the coming onslaught. Asked how concerned they’d be to share the road with a driverless car, 31 percent said they’d be “very concerned,” while 33 percent said “somewhat concerned,” according to the poll which was just released by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.

safety advocates up in arms

A majority (63 percent) said they would not support “mass exemptions” from federal motor vehicle safety standards for self-driving cars, and were not comfortable (75 percent) with automakers having the power to remotely disable vehicle controls, such as the steering wheel, and brake and gas pedals, when the autonomous vehicle is being operated by the computer. And people overwhelmingly support (75 percent) the US Department of Transportation developing new standards related to driverless vehicles. The poll surveyed 1,005 adults between December 7-10th, 2017, with a margin of error of +/- 3.09 percent.

The reason Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety commissioned this poll is because Congress is considering legislation that gives the industry wide latitude to deploy autonomous vehicles on public roads without having to adhere to existing safety standards. The legislation would preempt states from passing their own laws regulating driverless cars, which the industry argues is necessary to avoid a patchwork of state rules. The House of Representatives has approved its version of the bill, while the Senate bill is still awaiting approval before it comes to the floor for a vote.

“The Department of Transportation needs to issue some regulations as driverless vehicles are put onto the road to ensure a minimum level of safety and security,” said Jackie Gillan, president emeritus at the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. “Right now, that’s not the case.”

Congress has been under intense lobbying by the tech and auto industries to take a hands-off approach to autonomous vehicles. And in large part, Congress has complied, passing bills that maintain the laissez-faire approach first perfected by the Obama administration and now carried over to the Trump White House.

White House has taken a laissez-faire approach

For example, Congress is weighing whether to make the disclosure of accident data involving driverless cars voluntary, with only the requirement to revisit these rules in five years. The big companies are pushing back against efforts to make data disclosures mandatory, arguing it could stifle competition. Likewise, under current law, DOT can exempt up to 2,500 vehicles in a 12-month period from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration safety standards, such as the need for a steering wheel airbag. Automakers are seeking to lift that cap to 100,000 cars in a year, which would allow them to deploy vehicles without traditional controls like steering wheels or pedals.

Supporters of self-driving cars dismissed the findings in the new poll as largely a case of unfamiliarity. “I have repeatedly seen that when people ride in a fully self-driving vehicle for the first time, they quickly begin to recognize the tangible safety and mobility benefits this innovation will have for their daily life,” said David Strickland, a former administrator at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration who now runs the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, a lobbying group funded by Ford, Lyft, Uber, Volvo, and Waymo. “As more consumers across the country experience self-driving in action, I’m confident that Americans will become more trusting in the technology and its transformational potential.”

Safety advocates don’t deny that automated vehicles could drive down traffic fatalities, which have been steadily increasing in the last several years. Self-driving technology could be a “vaccine” to the epidemic of highway deaths, said Jack Gillis, director of public affairs for the Consumer Federation of America. But vaccines need to be “thoroughly tested before they are made available to public.” He cited concerns about cybersecurity and remote hacking of autonomous vehicles, which neither the House nor Senate bills adequately address.

“Congress is simply asleep at the wheel.”

“We live in a new reality where autonomous vehicles can be weaponized,” he said. “On AV cybersecurity, Congress is simply asleep at the wheel.”

At CES earlier this week, DOT Secretary Elaine Chao didn’t sound like someone eager to begin regulating the autonomous car industry. The Trump administration doesn’t believe in a “top-down approach” to regulation and was determined to “partner” with companies to roll out self-driving cars, Chao told the gathered crowds of techies.

Safety advocates were aghast by her comments. “There is nothing in the statute that authorizes Elaine Chao to be a partner of the auto industry,” said Joan Claybrook, former NHTSA administrator under President Jimmy Carter. “She is essentially a no-secretary secretary and not taking in the interest of the American public.”