People Will Pay an Extra $4,900 for Autonomous Car Tech, Study Says

We’ve seen plenty of studies indicating how many people would consider autonomous cars, but we’ve yet to find out the price people are willing to pay for them. Now, a new study claims customers are willing to shell out quite a bit.

Researchers at Cornell University found that the average household is willing to pay around $3,500 for partially autonomous technology and $4,900 for full automation. Demand for autonomous cars among the survey respondents was split evenly between high, modest, and none at all. A “significant share of the sample” reported a willingness to pay more than $10,000 for full automation, while others weren’t willing to pay a cent, the study notes. But the researchers suggest that these wide variations could decrease over time as the technology matures and consumers become more knowledgeable of the costs and benefits associated with driverless cars.

To gather this data, researchers surveyed a total of 1,260 adults with a driver’s license between September 12, 2014 and October 2, 2014. Considering that was quite a long time ago, we wonder if some opinions have changed with the rapid pace of technology. Click here for the full report.

Other studies suggest that many people fear self-driving cars but want to embrace automation in some way. A recent AAA report noted that three-quarters of Americans are afraid to ride in self-driving cars, although 59 percent of drivers want autonomous technologies in their next vehicle.

Source: Transportation Research via Fortune

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