Public opinion about self-driving vehicles in China, India, Japan, the U.S., the U.K., and Australia

Abstract

This report documents a new study of public opinion about self-driving vehicles in China, India, and Japan. The survey yielded completed responses from 610 respondents in China, 527 respondents in India, and 585 respondents in Japan. For comparison, the report also includes recently released findings from the same survey in the U.S., the U.K., and Australia. The main findings (applicable to each of the six countries) are as follows: The majority of respondents had previously heard of autonomous or self-driving vehicles, had a positive initial opinion of the technology (or neutral in the case of Japan), and had high expectations about the benefits of the technology. However, the majority of respondents expressed high levels of concern about riding in selfdriving vehicles, safety issues related to equipment or system failure, and self-driving vehicles not performing as well as human drivers. Respondents also expressed high levels of concern about vehicles without driver controls; selfdriving vehicles moving while unoccupied; and self-driving commercial vehicles, buses, and taxis. The majority of respondents expressed a desire to have this technology in their vehicles. However, a majority was also unwilling to pay extra for the technology (except for respondents in China and India). In comparison to the respondents in the U.S., the U.K., and Australia, respondents in China and India had more positive initial opinions of self-driving vehicles, expressed greater interest in having such technology on their personal vehicles, and were willing to pay the most for it. Japanese respondents, on the other hand, generally had more neutral initial opinions about self-driving technology and were willing to pay the least for it. The main implications of these results are that the respondents in the six countries surveyed, while expressing high levels of concern about riding in vehicles equipped with this technology, mostly feel positive about self-driving vehicles, have optimistic expectations of the benefits, and generally desire self-driving-vehicle technology (though a majority in four out of the six countries surveyed are not willing to pay extra for such technology at this time).