Poll: Majority unlikely to use self-driving cars

A majority of Americans are not likely to use self-driving vehicles, according to a new survey. 

A Gallup poll released Wednesday found that 54 percent of Americans said they are unlikely to utilize self-driving cars, while a quarter of respondents, 25 percent, said they would likely use the cars.

A majority of respondents, 59 percent, indicated that they were uncomfortable with the idea of traveling in a fully autonomous vehicle each day. Twenty-three percent said they are comfortable using a completely self-driven vehicle on a daily basis, while 18 percent said they feel neither way.

{mosads}

The survey also found that 62 percent of Americans feel uncomfortable about driving on the same roads as autonomous trucks. Twenty percent said they would be comfortable in that scenario, while 18 percent said they feel neither comfortable nor uncomfortable sharing the road with self-driving trucks.

The poll’s results come as self-driving car legislation remains stalled in Congress.

While the House last year passed the bipartisan Self Drive Act, which is meant to speed up the development of driverless vehicles and provide a set of federal laws for the technology, a similar bill hit a roadblock in the Senate.

The American Vision for Safer Transportation Through Advancement of Revolutionary Technologies (AV START) Act received approval from the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, but remains stuck in the upper chamber.

The Gallup/Northeastern University poll of 3,297 individuals was conducted by mail Sept. 15 through Oct. 10. It has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.