A new study by intelligentcarleasing.com has found that while the technological race towards driverless cars presses ahead at pace, the motoring public are yet to be convinced of their worth. The UK survey of 1750 18-65+ year olds found that a resounding 61% were in support of human controlled vehicles, showing that autonomous car manufacturers have a long way to go to get the public on board.

A large majority (just under two thirds) indicated that they would feel safest in a human driven vehicle. Whereas only 1 in 6 stated that they would feel safest in a self-driving vehicle.

When further questioned on their lack of confidence in autonomous vehicles, 42% said they would rather be in control, 41% said they did not trust the technology and 9% said they did not know enough about them to be confident. A further 7% said they were concerned about driverless and driver controlled cars on the same roads.

This is a very important issue for both policy makers and car manufacturers. The credibility of driverless vehicles is by no means cemented, considering a self-driving bus encountered a collision just 2 hours into its first day of operation in Las Vegas recently. It seems that autonomous vehicles might be road legal and mechanically ready. However the public need to be on board or else the technology could be a massive flop.

Looking more closely at the study there were noticeable differences in attitudes between certain age groups and genders. Female respondents had 10% more confidence in human driven vehicles compared to their male counterparts. Not surprisingly there was an even bigger disparity when looking at the difference in responses by age. The over 65s had a hugely noticeable 17% higher confidence in human drivers, compared to the younger 18-25s category.