A YouGov poll in Britain has revealed that more than 69 percent of people are against semi-autonomous vehicles hitting the English highways in 2021. The survey was done in response to the department of transport revelation of consideration for cars with automated lane-keeping systems to be allowed on the highways at a speed limit of 70 mph or 113 kmph. The poll asked people a simple question. "Are you comfortable or uncomfortable with the idea of driver-less cars being allowed on the motorway at some point next year?" The poll was answered by 1,947 people out of which 69 percent claimed that they were uncomfortable with the idea.
Tesla Model 3 is one of the semi-autonomous cars on sale in the UK.
Interestingly, only 6 percent of people actually liked the idea of the introduction of new technology which is in line with what's even been happening in the US as per the latest JD Power report. There were around 17 percent of people as a part of the survey who claimed to be fairly comfortable with the introduction of cars where drivers were legally allowed to remove their hands from the steering wheel and hand over the driving to semi-autonomous assistive systems.
Autonomous Lane Keeping systems (ALKS) is a level 3 autonomous vehicle technology. It is a technology that doesn't require the driver to be in charge of the car though he/she needs to be alert enough to intervene when needed. Famously, Tesla's Autopilot qualifies as a level 3 autonomous technology.
Jaguar Land Rover and Waymo will start testing the cars later this year.
Currently, drivers in the UK are allowed to drive vehicles with semi-autonomous tech but the law requires the driver to be in control of the car which indicates it only accounts for level 2 autonomous driving. The highest is level 5 which is a fully autonomous technology such as seen in Google-owned Waymo's autonomous vehicles.
