It's Boomers with the Demand for Autonomous Vehicles #Science

Schulich transportation engineering master's student Mahsa Ghaffari has conducted a survey on attitudes toward autonomous (driverless) vehicles. 

Credit: Riley Brandt, University of Calgary


The question the Rockhouse has asked repeatedly is who wants the damn things since we have been great fans of internal combustion.  We realize it needs to go but that doesn't mean we have to like it and hence the question:  who does like it.


Say what you will about old dogs and new tricks, it appears men over 50 are most keen to embrace fully automated cars when computer-chauffeured vehicles finally appear on Canadian streets.

That's one key finding of a groundbreaking University of Calgary study, the first in Canada to measure attitudes toward automated vehicles (AVs) and society's willingness to accept a future where vehicles can drive themselves.

"When fully autonomous vehicles are available, drivers over 50 years old would be more willing to own and drive them for commute trips, and men in particular," explains author Mahsa Ghaffari, a graduate student at Schulich School of Engineering.

"For me, the results of both age and gender were surprising and interesting."

Phys.org:  Drivers cautious but curious over automated cars, first Canadian study shows


At fifty, an individual is early Gen-X but may be trying to pass as a Boomer freak for some unknown reason.


The interested student is invited to the source article but we want the observations.

Other findings include:

• Respondents who drive 10 to 20 hours per week are approximately three times more willing to give up control compared to those who drive less than 10 hours per week.
• People without children showed more trust in vehicle automation.
• There are widespread concerns about how AVs will handle poor weather conditions and unexpected situations like a child running into traffic.
• Only six per cent to eight per cent of the respondents would trust AVs completely in all situations. More than half of the respondents are highly willing to use AVs if more tests are conducted to confirm reliability and safety performance.
• Only 36 per cent of respondents said they would feel safe without looking at the road when the vehicle is driving itself and 22.5 per cent said they would be constantly watching the roads rather than reading, texting and so forth.
• Females and people over 35 are less keen on sharing a ride with strangers in an autonomous vehicle.
• Drivers with more than 35 years of experience are most open to full automation.

- PO

There's no need for me to be 'splainin' anything when the list is front of you but the last bit may be the most revealing since it appears people just get tired of driving.  Driving at speed has been the only aspect which was ever interesting to me but that, regrettably, will get me busted in every state of the Union although only about half a dozen states did actually manage to tag me.

Here's that hit parade now:  California, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and probably some others.  Note:  I never hurt anyone other than myself and the really unusual part is they never took my license.

So, nah, I don't need that anymore and it seems a significant number of Boomers are tired of it as well.