Public worried by self-driving safety

2 September 2015  

With autonomous cars seemingly around the corner, a survey by OSV has found that a majority of the UK population is concerned by them.

According to the results, of the 500 people surveyed, 72% were worried about their arrival, with safety topping the list of issues, with 20% of people worried by this aspect. 18% cited that they were most concerned by hacking, malfunctions or dodgy updates. Another 18% were concerned about accidents or crashing. Lower down the list of concerns was the question of who will control the car’s moral compass, 7% admitting that this was the most worrying element of autonomous vehicles, while only 5% shared that they are most concerned with who will govern self-driving cars.

The survey results also showed that those aged over 65 were the most concerned age range, with 100% of those surveyed admitting that they were concerned with some element. On the other end of the scale, those aged between 25-34 are most looking forward to the arrival of autonomous cars and have the least concerns, although figures were still high with 71% of this age range admitted that they have concerns with driverless cars.