Americans are more concerned about self-driving cars than people in the U.K. and Australia, according to a new University of Michigan survey.

Driverless cars -- or self-driving cars, which require little to no human input -- are almost certainly an inevitability. The real questions now are how soon, how independent of human control they will be, what obstacles they will face and eventually overcome, and how comprehensively they will change our way of life.

At least right now, it appears one of the early stumbling blocks for driverless cars are Americans' personal reservations about actually using the technology, contradictory though they may be. A new survey by the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute lends weight to mounting evidence of America's mixed feelings about autonomous vehicles by comparing the views and concerns of Americans to responses from the U.K. and Australia.

Americans Are Particularly Wary of Riding in Driverless Cars

Although most of the results from the three-country survey were similar, researchers Brandon Schoettle and Michael Sivak found that more Americans were "very concerned" about riding in self-driving cars than those from the other two countries. On average, almost 30 percent of everyone asked, "How concerned would you be about driving or riding in a vehicle with [fully autonomous] self-driving technology?" responded "very concerned." But broken down by country, only 26 percent of U.K. subjects and 28 percent of Australians responded that way, while nearly 36 percent of Americans reported feeling that way.

The "concern" gap between Americans, Brits and Aussies becomes wider when you take add in those who were "moderately concerned." Two out of three Americans total reported feeling moderately concerned or worse about riding in the kind of fully autonomous vehicles of the type Google recently showed off in prototype form.


Levels of concern dropped when discussing partially autonomous vehicles -- those that might have an "autopilot" mode, but still allowed for human control -- but still, over half of those surveyed were worried about riding in one.

But Objectively, People Believe Autonomous Cars Will Benefit Society

But just as a recent Pew poll on future technologies, the U of M study showed people have mixed and even contradictory views on the prospect of self-driving vehicles. When asked, "How likely do you think it is that the following benefits will occur when using self-driving vehicles?" the vast majority of people responded positively to most specified cases.

For example, about 70 percent of all people said it was likely autonomous vehicles will lead to fewer crashes, a reduced severity of crashes, and better fuel economy. Even though Americans generally answered slightly less favorably than British or Australian survey takers, at least over 65 percent viewed the future of driverless cars in those cases favorably. The survey takers were less optimistic about lower insurance rates, less traffic congestion, shorter and travel times, but the big takeaway is that when discussing overall societal benefits, the general view on self-driving cars is favorable.

Consumers Don't Personally Want Them Yet but Understand the Benefits

The survey also asked if people would consider buying or leasing an autonomous car, finding that 42 percent would and that about two thirds were at least slightly, ranging up to very, interested in buying one.

But those numbers go down when a little reality is thrown into the mix. As Vox reported, the first autonomous cars are likely to cost $100,000 or more, and while the cost of technology tends to trend downward over time, there are a lot of unknown factors like possible special regulations or an untested, wary insurance market that could drive up the price even higher. But when the survey Americans if they would pay only an extra $5,800 for a car with self-driving technology, only 10 percent agreed.

Schoettle summarized the overall thrust of the survey, saying, "Motorists and the general public in all three countries surveyed, while expressing high levels of concern about riding in vehicles equipped with this technology, feel positive about self-driving vehicles, have optimistic expectations of the benefits and generally desire self-driving vehicle technology when it becomes available."

While this is (albeit early-stage) good news for companies looking to gain acceptance by lawmakers and the public for generally allowing autonomous vehicles on the road, driverless cars appear to have an uphill battle to win over the personal sensibilities of the consumer -- not to mention drivers.

Of course, many new technologies have fought with and eventually won over peoples' personal skepticism towards something new and untested time and again. Think smartphones, the Internet, personal computers, air travel, or even the first horseless carriages -- at one point for each of those eventually revolutionary technologies, a good number of people were likely unsure about whether they would ever give them a try. It just takes time.

But for the early stages of autonomous cars, this and other surveys indicate that the most likely immediate path forward is not through the personal vehicle market, but rather a more public means like car sharing services and taxi companies: places that can afford to buy a small fleet and, by using them, will give the general public a financially-acceptable, limited exposure to the experience of having no driver.