Is this a surprise? The boffins at road safety charity IAM RoadSmart have conducted a survey to reveal that 60 % of motorists fear that self-drive vehicles are ‘a serious threat to road safety’. Maybe the only surprise is that more didn’t think they’re dangerous?
Mind you, when you see some of the gurning fools speeding down the roads near NTK Motors to impress their stoned mates you’d say self-drives can’t come soon enough.
But the serious point remains. As the IAM RoadSmart themselves say, there is well-documented evidence that most road incidents are caused by human error. So maybe if we take the human out of the driver’s seat we might reduce the number of collisions.
Neil Greig, IAM RoadSmart Director of Policy & Research, said: “Autonomous and automated vehicle technology is becoming an integral part of everyday motoring and while it does have the capacity to improve road safety, its capabilities must be fully understood to ensure we don’t over rely on them.
“Our research clearly shows that many motorists remain to be convinced about the safety of self-driving vehicles. While we wait for completely autonomous cars to take over from human drivers driver training will be paramount in ensuring that increasingly automated vehicles are an asset rather than a drawback.”