According to CarGurus, one-third of Canadian car shoppers wish to own an autonomous vehicle in the next decade. The company released the Self-Driving Vehicle Sentiment Survey results this week, and it had some interesting findings.
Although one third were hoping to own an autonomous vehicle, one-third of respondents were also concerned. In addition, the survey notes that almost half, or 46% of respondents preferred to remain the driver of a self-driving car.
In terms of trusted brands in this space, Tesla dominated. 34% of respondents noted Tesla as the most trusted brand to work on self-driving vehicles. With Apple (8%) and Toyota (7%) rounding up the top three. In addition, Tesla also took home the leading AV brand that consumers would consider with 47%. Rounding out the best of the rest were BMW (31%) and Honda and Toyota (26% each).
The study also revealed that consumers were excited about autonomous vehicles due to the massive leap in technology. However, consumers concerns were around cost and the safety of the car.
We are still a few years away from full autonomy, but Tesla is undoubtedly leading the back in terms of a trusted brand and the actual tech.
It will be interesting to compare this same study in 5 years to see how consumer opinions have shifted as the technology matures.
