Source: Motional report fact sheet

BOSTON – One of the consequences of the pandemic is the changing attitude Americans have about transportation and self-driving/autonomous vehicles (AVs), according to the findings published in the recently revealed Motional Consumer Mobility Report.

Motional, the joint venture between the Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv PLC formed in March 2020 to advance the development and commercialization of the world’s highest-performing and safest autonomous vehicles (AV), commissioned the survey at the basis of the report which, among other things, revealed that 83 percent of Americans agree that access to safe, clean transportation is a public health issue

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Highlights from this year’s inaugural report include:

  • COVID-19 has changed how people intend to use transportation in the future. Nearly one in five (19 percent) Americans are more interested in self-driving vehicles now than they were before the pandemic, and most Americans (60 percent) are reconsidering their transportation choices to accommodate social distancing.
  • The pandemic has opened Americans’ eyes to some of the biggest issues facing our cities. The vast majority (83 percent) of Americans agree that access to safe, clean transportation is a public health issue, and nearly seven in ten (69 percent) agree that coronavirus has changed how cities should be planned in the future.
  • Safety has shifted from a theoretical desire to a guiding principle driving people’s large and small decisions. An overwhelming 70 percent of Americans admit that the risk of infection is a real concern impacting their transportation decisions, and more than three in four (76 percent) say their concerns around the safety of public spaces has increased as well.
  • Americans are eager to have this technology in their cities and towns. More than half (54 percent) agree that AVs can help address mobility access challenges, and one in four (25 percent) say they are very interested in experiencing the technology regularly.
  • Americans are largely positive about the future of AVs with 62 percent saying they are the way of the future.

The Road Ahead:

Safety and trust rule the day when it comes to consumers and autonomous vehicles, but now more than ever, they understand the critical need for new ways of getting around and the role that autonomous vehicles might play. Most consumers have not had the chance to experience where the technology is today, but the good news is consumers that have overwhelmingly positive experiences; of the over 100,000 autonomous rides Motional has completed in partnership with Lyft in Las Vegas, 98 percent have a five-star rating.

The survey was fielded from July 17-21, 2020 and was conducted across 1,003 responses from US consumers sampled using a blind online panel recruitment. The overall margin of error for the research is +/- 3.02% at a 95 percent Confidence Interval.