Self-driving carmakers will have to pry steering wheel from some cold, dead hands

Computerworld - As development self-driving car technology moves ahead, a growing faction in the blogosphere say they will refuse let their driving independence be usurped by a computer.

In one game site discussion, comments ranged from, "They'll take the steering wheel out of my cold, dead hands..." to "I'm not trusting a robot to drive a car for me in a long time."

A recent ZDNet article on self-driving cars garnered more than two dozen responses, which ranged from "leave me out" to "can't wait for [a] year that [the] government would be piloting for me."

While many in the blogosphere say they support the develoment of self-driving technology, the opponents appear to have the early edge according to recent survey data.

For example, a survey of British drivers last year commissioned by Bosch, a Germany-based supplier of automotive components, found that most would not buy a self-driving car. Only 29% of respondents said thay would consider buying a driverless car and only 21% said they would feel safe as a passenger in a self-driving car.

The results were vastly different depending on whether the respondents were men, women, younger or older.

It found that 36% of men wouldd consider buying a self-driving car, but only 20% of women felt the same way. And 52% of 18 to 34-year-old respondents would consider an autonomous vehicle.

Bosch, which has invested heavily in driver assistance tech, also said 34% of respondents believe driverless cars would reduce accidents.

Automakers such as GM and Volvo, and even tech companies such as Google, are developing autonomous vehicle technology that will one day let cars and trucks automatically navigate roadways.

Google, in fact, believes that self-driving or autonomous cars will be a reality in short order.

Google co-founder and special projects director Sergey Brin said last year that self-driving cars will be a reality for "ordinary people" in less than five years. Among automakers , General Motors has said it plans to introduce a semi-automated driving system in the Cadillac line in 2015.

Proponents of the technology say it will allow commuters or long-haul truckers to make better use of their time on boring trips.

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