Respondents indicated that they wouldn't feel comfortable with driverless vehicles transporting their children, as well as safety and trust in technology being the main barriers to consumer adoption.

The survey was developed based on expert commentary that was made during an IEEE roundtable discussion that took place at the University of Southern California on 28th August, 2015. The panellists, from technical, legal and regulatory industries, analysed the industry in relation to driverless vehicle technology, policy/regulation and law.

The survey polled members of the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems society, as well as IEEE's social media communities. Below details how participants responded in regards to the safety of driverless vehicles:

• When asked on a scale from 1-5 regarding their comfort level of having autonomous vehicles pick up/drop off their children (1 being not at all comfortable to 5 being very comfortable), 71% of experts (e) and 60% of IEEE social media followers (f) noted a 3 or below on the scale.
• When asked what their main concern was in having driverless vehicles on the road, IEEE social media followers and experts indicated that safety (f=54%; e=63%) and trust in technology (f=21%; e=16%) were the primary issues.

“Security needs to be a prime consideration in the technology of the driverless car”, said Dr Kevin Curran, senior member of the IEEE and senior lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Ulster. “The success of driverless cars depends in part on resolving conflicts in privacy concerns between the stakeholders who will make decisions about how information is collected, archived, and distributed. Hackers could target this personal mobility data to capture data, modify records, instigate attacks on systems and/or track individual vehicles.”

Respondents believe there are other aspects besides the technology that need to be addressed, primarily policy, regulation and liability. Based on the results, participants believe that:

• In addressing who or what would be responsible in the event that an autonomous vehicle got into an accident, the majority of respondents selected two categories: the car manufacturer or the developer of the car's software (55% respectively).
• Similarly, more than one-quarter (26%) of experts believe that policy/regulation is the main barrier to mass adoption of autonomous vehicles. Following closely behind was comfort level (25%), technology (17%) and liability (14%).

"The key question here is whether the relevant technologies have reached a demonstrated level of socially acceptable risk," explained Bryant Walker Smith, an assistant professor of law at the University of South Carolina and a leading expert on the legal aspects of increasing automation. "Developers, regulators and eventually courts will consider how safe is safe enough, how certain is certain enough, and how this performance should be determined, demonstrated, and documented. These are crucial questions of engineering, law, and public policy, and they necessarily involve not only engineers and lawyers but also the public at large."

Although there are safety concerns, IEEE social media followers and experts do envision a future of utilising autonomous vehicles in their everyday life. IEEE social media followers are also becoming knowledgeable regarding the different autonomous technologies available.

“It is already quite common for new vehicles to have numerous connectivity modes, such as through cell phone networks and to the Internet via systems including OnStar, Ford Sync and others. They have Bluetooth connectivity, short-range wireless access for key fobs and tyre pressure sensors. Some support satellite radio and they also have inputs for DVDs, CDs, iPads and USB devices, stated Dr. Kevin Curran.

“As connected car technology continues to develop, we can expect to see an increasing level of communication within the car between its own systems, between vehicle-to-vehicle, and to/from road sensors and satellite communications. We can, in fact expect a significant portion of the Internet to become consumed by vehicle communications. In the future, all smart cars will have network connectivity.”

IEEE social media followers and experts indicated that driverless vehicles are only a few years away. The survey found that:

• More than half of IEEE social media followers (62%) believe that they will be available by 2025. 84% of experts indicated that driverless vehicles will be available by 2030.
• The United States is projected to be the first country to reach a majority of driverless cars on the road, with more than one-third (32%) of the IEEE social media followers' vote, followed by Germany (23%) and Japan (10%). Experts also indicated the USA would be first to mass adoption with 27.3 percent, followed by Japan (18%) and Germany (15%).