Driverless trucks: Public shows concern with safety in survey

The transportation business software consultants at SoftwareAdvice.com recently took a look at the growing fleet interest in autonomous vehicles, specifically cast as “driverless semi trucks,” in a new survey aimed at sussing out public perceptions of such vehicles’ safety.

Results showed two-thirds of all survey respondents “said they would feel less safe sharing the road with driverless semi-trucks,” with a majority showing no change in sentiment even “if it meant cheaper consumer products or reduced carbon emissions.”

As the above graph of the “Safety perception of driverless vehicles” shows, skepticism over safety was by and large greater for autonomous trucks than their four-wheeled counterparts. Men, the survey also showed, were significantly more likely than women to view such technology as safe.

The survey follows advances in software and hardware systems to allow more autonomous truck operation, covered here in Overdrive on the occasion of demonstrations of such technology in Europe and elsewhere. In on-highway vehicles, current technology is allowing for more autonomous, if not completely “driverless,” operation, as demonstrations have shown. 

Assuming autonomous vehicles are trucking’s future, what’s your vision of the owner-operator of that future? If you’re using a mobile device, tap the image to call and weigh in on these or any pressing issue with a message. If you’re on a desktop, call 530-408-6423. Make sure to tell us your name and state of residence.

Find further results of the SoftwareAdvice survey via this link.