U.K. Jumping Gun on Driverless Cars, Survey Shows

U.K. motorists are not ready to share the streets with driverless cars.

A new survey finds 66.2% of drivers are against the government’s plan for a £10 million ($16.68 million) trial in January of autonomous cars in three cities and on certain roads such as motorways and in specific lanes.

And 88% of the more than 1,000 motorists surveyed by car-incident camera company SmartWitness say all autonomous vehicles should be installed with forward-facing video incident cameras to show if they were at fault in the event of a collision.

SmartWitness Managing Director Simon Marsh says two-thirds of motorists believe the government is premature in allowing driverless cars on U.K. roads and more tests are needed to ensure the safety of the new technology.

The survey found 79.4% of respondents felt there would be added complications to resolving insurance disputes involving driverless cars and computer error always would be suspected as the cause of the crash, which would make premiums considerably higher than those for regular vehicles.

A poll commissioned late last year by automotive components and systems supplier Bosch, which is conducting extensive research into driverless-car technology, found more than one-third of U.K. drivers surveyed believe autonomous cars would reduce traffic accidents.

The government has fast-tracked measures for autonomous cars to be allowed on certain roads by January 2015. Supporters say the new technology can give complete control to an onboard computer with the car guided by radar, laser sensors, cameras and satellite navigation.

Several major automakers are developing self-driving vehicles including Volvo, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Vauxhall, Volkswagen and Honda.

All models are expected to have a manual override, allowing the driver to take control if necessary, but the SmartWitness survey indicates skepticism about that claim. Some 69% of drivers said they would not want to buy an autonomous car and 42.6% said they would refuse to ride in one.