Poll: Majority not ready for driverless cars

A total of 51 percent of voters said they would not ride in a driverless car, while 63 percent said they were unlikely to buy a self-driving car in the next decade, according to a new poll. 

A Morning Consult poll released Monday showed that car makers have work to do change the public’s perception about autonomous car technology. Those feelings could change as the technology becomes more widespread and regulated. 

{mosads}The poll found 25 percent of voters said they would ride in a driverless car, while 24 percent said they did not know or didn’t care. 

Young people and men were mostly likely to see driverless cars as safe. 

Forty-five percent of 18-to-29 year olds said they believed the technology to be safe, while only 25 percent of people over the age of 65 said the same. Similarly, 44 percent of men said they were safe, compared to just 21 percent of women. 

More than 75 percent of voters expressed concerns about road safety, glitches, and having driverless cars share the road with traditional cars. 

Car companies have been increasingly bullish about the technology for fully autonomous vehicles. Tesla, for example, came out with a kind of auto-pilot last year that allows its cars to automatically steer and change lanes on the highway. 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has predicted the technology for fully driverless cars will be ready in two years, but he has said regulation with likely lag behind that. Google has also been testing driverless cars and has expected to market them by the end of the decade. 

Traditional car companies, like General Motors, have also been experimenting.  

The online poll surveyed 1,869 people from Jan. 29 to Feb. 1. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percent.