PR & News Autonomous Vehicles Face Uphill Climb

[Jeff Kershner]

Safety ratings matter a lot more than driver assist features to new vehicle intenders in the US, according to a study from Morning Consult, and there’s a lot of work for autonomous vehicle makers to do to convince them that these vehicles are at least as safe as traditional vehicles, per the report.

Among US adults who intend to buy a vehicle within the next 3 years, 60% said that safety ratings are a top priority, and an additional 30% said they are important though not a top priority. This put safety ratings behind only quality, cost, and gas mileage in terms of priorities for these respondents’ next vehicle purchase.

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[craigh]

The original data source has it broken down a bit more granular as well.
My thoughts on this whole thing revolve around 3 items:

1. There is a severe lack of education in autonomous vehicles - there are various degrees of autonomy and there are SAE levels that try to standardize this. Full autonomy isn't here yet (SAE 4-5 rating), but we're getting closer. https://www.carindigo.com/news/tesl...at-its-fsd-technology-is-a-sae-level-2-system
   
   
2. I would be very curious to see how the data changes if they ask how people feel about self-driving cars where they are in the car vs having self-driving cars on the road with them. In various states there are driver-less cars being tested and even then awareness of that is pretty low.
   
   
3. The data about electric cars is also quite interesting. Autonomous cars don't have to be electric, but Tesla has done a great job of building an image as the most progressive company on both fronts. 47% of people who want an electric car support autonomous vehicles, but only 16% of people who are not looking for an electric vehicle.

 

[Ryan Everson]

I'm anxiously waiting for GM to roll out SuperCruise to more models.

I don't care about EVs but I am super excited about semi-autonomous driving since I drive 100+ highway miles to/from work everyday.

 

[craigh]

I'm anxiously waiting for GM to roll out SuperCruise to more models.

I don't care about EVs but I am super excited about semi-autonomous driving since I drive 100+ highway miles to/from work everyday.

My wife's RDX only has the adaptive cruise control and "stay inbetween the lines" functionality, but I use it every time I drive.
Going down the highway, it matches the speed of the person in front of me and keeps me in my lane. Brakes when it needs to, including emergency hard braking.
I love it and I don't know how much more I need.

 

[Ryan Everson]

My wife's RDX only has the adaptive cruise control and "stay inbetween the lines" functionality, but I use it every time I drive.
Going down the highway, it matches the speed of the person in front of me and keeps me in my lane. Brakes when it needs to, including emergency hard braking.
I love it and I don't know how much more I need.

Yeah, my Porsche and Range Rover have adaptive cruise and lane-keep assist. Adaptive cruise is an absolute godsend, I will never buy a vehicle without it. (I will also never buy another POS Range Rover)

Lane-keep assist is another story, it tends to just bounce you like a ping pong ball from one side of the lane to the other. Lane centering is much better. Hyundai / Genesis has a pretty good system at a nice price point.

GM's SuperCruise is the closest to Tesla's "Full Self Driving." Makes an hour-plus highway commute or long road trip much more enjoyable!

 

[craigh]

Lane-keep assist is another story, it tends to just bounce you like a ping pong ball from one side of the lane to the other. Lane centering is much better. Hyundai / Genesis has a pretty good system at a nice price point.

I have had no issues with the Acura (Honda?) LKAS. It doesn't bounce at all, it does a much better job of keeping me centered in the lane than I do.
I also find it works really well with spotty lines, gravel roads, etc - things that the Lexus I drove before could not handle at all.