Brits Apprehensive Towards Driverless Cars 

Reports of crashes involving driverless cars has heightened people’s apprehension towards them, a new report has claimed.

66% of British people have expressed concern over the safety of driverless cars after it has transpired that they had been involved in a number of collisions. Also, 49% of British drivers refuse to be a passenger in a driverless car and the same percentage do not trust driverless cars to make decisions that are subject to human perception. 45% have also aired concerns over how secure the driverless cars are and worry that they could be hacked, after several recent high profile cases have been reported.  

This could be disappointing news for Ford, who has recently announced that it intends to expand its fleet of fully autonomous Ford Fusion hybrid test vehicles. Reports have suggested that Google is partnering up with Ford on a driverless vehicle project. Whilst Google has been working on its own driverless vehicle for a while now, with Ford’s manufacturing prowess efforts could soon be ramped up, and the partnership would also benefit Ford who would have the data Google has collated from its numerous autonomous driving trials. Google has also defended the safety record of driverless cars, reporting that in the past six years, its driverless cars have only been involved in sixteen minor incidents, of which humans in other cars have been responsible for causing.

Are Driverless Cars Safe?

Volvo and Netflix are working on a self-driving vehicle that will come equipped with retractable screens so passengers can stream films during their journey. The Concept 26 model will recognise passengers’ viewing preferences and travel patterns and will cache films and TV shows so that there is no interruption in areas where there is little coverage. Volvo is aiming to test 100 of its autonomous vehicles on the roads of Gothenburg in 2017, using untrained members of the public. The roads Volvo will use to test its vehicles will be free of pedestrians, oncoming traffic and cyclists.

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