Building trust
As these advances and debates take shape, what does the route to consumer acceptance look like? We see four crucial steps.
Making incremental improvements in automation: The industry has been introducing driving assistance features over the past few years. This bodes well for autonomous technologies. A step-by-step approach will help gain consumer trust, assuming they do not have a poor experience.
Humanizing driving: Vehicles must be designed to mimic aspects of human driving and adapt to personal style. Not everyone drives the same way. Mimicking needs to gradually move beyond average driver behavior toward varied driver profiles.
Taking cues from the aviation industry: Consumers have grown to trust commercial airplanes, even in autopilot mode. Learning from the aviation industry will help win consumers’ trust.
Educating and incentivizing customers: Dealers and automakers need to educate and incentivize prospective customers on autonomous features and technology.