Afraid of cars that drive themselves? You’re not alone. 3 of 4 U.S. drivers are afraid of the technology: https://t.co/I5FqTdG8Gy
— Edmunds.com (@edmunds) March 8, 2016
Many new technologies are looked at with suspicion. Cellphones could give you cancer, people say. The Large Hadron Collider could rip the fabric of space-time apart and suck us all into a black hole.
Most of these suspicions turn out to be unfounded... but what about self-driving cars?
Proponents will point out the large number of fatal traffic accidents that occur every year, the majority of which are caused by human error -- one of the drivers was texting, or drunk, or fell asleep at the wheel. Computers don't do those things.
On the other hand, self-driving vehicles are far from flawless. Reports keep hitting the news about self-driving cars getting into accidents at a higher rate than human drivers. Most of these accidents, of course, involved the self-driving vehicle getting rear ended because it was travelling the speed limit.
Regardless of your view on completely self-driving cars, experts all agree that semi-autonomous safety features, like automatic emergency braking, have been proven to reduce and mitigate collisions.
It's no wonder that AAA reports that while about 75 percent of American drivers are afraid of self-driving cars, those 25 percent who are not afraid are mostly people who have driven cars with automatic emergency braking.
Find used cars in Wharton, NJ with your choice of technology at Route 15 Used Car Center.