Can Self-Driving Cars Gain Peoples’ Trust by Driving Worse?
Bellina Gaskey
· 3 min read
Self-driving cars are the way of the future. As the technology continues to develop and self-driving cars hit the street, it begs the question: can drivers trust a self-driving automobile?
Now that there are cars with autopilot features out there, some drivers have safety concerns about sharing their roadways with an autonomous vehicle.
Jerry has taken a look at the concerns surrounding
self-driving vehicles
, and found that the main issue drivers have with them is safety.
Do drivers trust AI on the road?
The root of this mistrust in self-driving cars can be traced to a distrust of the artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology which runs them.
According to an article by
Insurance Journal
, recent studies show that drivers don’t trust self-driving vehicles, and that a "human-centered approach in autonomy" is considered more trustworthy. In other words, people want to see a self-driving car that drives in a similar fashion to a human driver.Specifically, drivers want to see a self-driving car that drives and performs closer to their own personal driving habits. Studies showed that when asked about speed, lane changes, acceleration and deceleration, and passing other vehicles, drivers expected self-driving cars to perform these tasks the same way they would, though less aggressively.
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Drivers want a self-driving car that drives like they do
The study also found that the group of respondents who answered that they trusted or somewhat trusted AI, autonomous technologies and self-driving cars wanted to see a self-driving car model which reflected their own driving habits.
Essentially, drivers wanted to see an autonomous vehicle that would make the same decisions on the road that they would.
The results of this survey aren’t too surprising. People want their car to drive how they want, without the hassle of manually controlling the vehicle.
MORE: 3 Tech Companies Testing Self-Driving Cars in Pennsylvania
Does worse driving really make us feel safer?
AI-driven cars might be more convenient, and technology-trusting drivers may be willing to share the roads with them or take a ride in one, but do we really want them to drive more like us?
Our assumption would be that a car driven by AI would actually make safer decisions on the road, as it's not hampered by human error or prone to being overly aggressive on the road. So it’s a bit counterintuitive to think that a self-driving car that operates more like a human driver will be a safer ride.
Still, it makes sense that some drivers want a self-driving car that drives the car the way they do. People tend to trust their own instincts over that of an inhuman computer. And no one likes being told how to drive in the first place.
What side of the argument do you land on?
