cars news 10: Survey: Opinions on Self-Driving Cars Vary Between New Yorkers, Texans

Volvo is aggressively pushing for self-driving cars. It’s putting 100 autonomous cars on public roads in Gothenburg, Sweden by next year and another 100 on London’s streets by 2018. A similar plan is expected to roll out in China. To study the public’s perception of these emerging vehicles, the automaker surveyed nearly 50,000 people worldwide and gathered some interesting insights. Not surprisingly, opinions vary greatly depending on where you live.

For one thing, 55 percent of respondents say they want a steering wheel in a fully autonomous car, supporting the findings of an earlier survey that had a smaller sample size. Google has cooked up an autonomous car prototype with no steering wheel or brakes, although many argue cars should have these features at least until the technology is proven.

The survey also revealed that 72 percent of people think automakers should preserve the experience of manual driving. Most people around the globe still want to take control of the driving experience in some capacity; 69 percent want to be able to choose the route they will take in an autonomous car.

A whopping 72 percent of people believe car manufacturers will make autonomous cars a reality, rather than tech companies like Google. But 80 percent of drivers also expect automakers to accept liability for accidents while vehicles are operating in autonomous mode.

In one part of its survey, Volvo narrows in on U.S. consumers, and it turns out people’s opinions vary widely based on the region in which they live. Nine out of 10 New Yorkers and 86 percent of Californians feel autonomous cars could make life easier, but residents of Illinois and Texas are less accepting. Only 52 percent of Illinois residents say they trust autonomous cars, down 10 percent from the national average. And only 60 percent of Texans are convinced of the safety benefits of autonomous cars, down from the average of 69 percent.

Check out the infographic below for more survey results. Where do you stand on autonomous cars?

Source: Volvo