IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - April 2017 - 125

CTA Insights

The Path to Driverless Cars
By Brian Markwalter

he Consumer Technology Association (CTA) counts among its
members companies that are integral to all parts of the automotive
supply chain: from chip companies,
including Intel and Nvidia, to tier 1 subsystem suppliers, such as Visteon and
Mobileye, to car manufacturers, including Ford, General Motors, Nissan, and
Toyota. The aftermarket suppliers, such
as Sony, Kenwood, Pioneer, Alpine, and
Voxx, have always been part of CTA,
too. And more recently, disruptive
mobility suppliers like Uber and Lyft
have joined. CTA is fully engaged with
these members to help speed the adoption of self-driving cars.
CTA's recent consumer research,
discussions with companies developing
self-driving cars, and interactions with
regulators who must bring about an
orderly transition to driverless vehicles
suggest there are three misconceptions
that must be dispelled, as discussed in
the following sections.

FIRST MISCONCEPTION:
CONSUMERS DO NOT WANT
DRIVERLESS CARS
Numerous media reports cited a 2015
study from the University of Michigan
Transportation Research Institute (Report
UMTRI-2015-22, July 2015 [1]) that
showed a slight majority of respondents
indicated they preferred "no self-driving"
over "partially self-driving" or "completely
self-driving" vehicles. Furthermore, a
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MCE.2016.2640625
Date of publication: 15 March 2017

34%
28%
21%
17%

Very
Interested

Moderately
Interested

Slightly
Interested

Not at All
Interested

FIGURE 1. The interest in replacing current vehicles with a driverless vehicle. (Courtesy of
CTA Market Research.)

recent Kelley Blue Book poll found that
51% of drivers want to have full control
of their vehicles, even if self-driving cars
make our roads safer. Media stories about
these studies often have headlines that
suggest consumers do not want self-driving cars, when in reality the concern is
about control.
To dig into this issue, CTA released
research in September 2016 that asked
U.S. consumers about their willingness
to own a driverless car. The results provide direct evidence that most consumers
have an appetite for driverless cars
(Figure 1). In CTA's research, 70% of
drivers expressed interest in testing a
self-driving car, and more than 60% of
drivers showed a willingness in replacing
their cars or trucks with a completely
self-driving vehicle.
In some ways, the Michigan research
is actually similar to CTA's in showing
that younger consumers are much more

receptive to driverless cars than older drivers. In the Michigan study, drivers below
the age of 45 preferred "partially selfdriving" cars over "none" or "completely
self-driving" options. Our research finds
drivers ages 18-35 are three times as likely as those 55 and above to want to replace
their current vehicle with a completely
self-driving car.
As it turns out, consumers are eager to
buy self-driving cars. There is definitely
an age bias, with younger people being
more receptive, but the notion that people
simply do not want driverless cars is nothing more than a myth.

SECOND MISCONCEPTION: THERE
IS A STRAIGHT LINE FROM
DRIVER-ASSISTANCE FEATURES
TODAY TO FULLY SELF-DRIVING
CARS IN THE FUTURE
The U.S. Department of Transportation
(DOT) recently released guidance for
APRIL 2017

IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine

125

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - April 2017