By Chuck Martin
Self-driving cars may not soon find a home in consumers’ garages.
The expected high price of fully autonomous vehicles makes them much more likely candidates for ride-sharing services or product deliveries.
In addition, a new study indicates that owning or leasing a personal vehicle still matters to drivers.
Most (94%) boomers, those aged 56 to 73, Gen-x (86%) those 40 to 55 and 87% of millennials, those 23 to 39, say vehicle ownership or leasing is important to them, with the majority of all ages ranking it as “extremely important.”
The view of when self-driving vehicles will arrive also varies, based on the survey of 950 consumers conducted by Cars.com.
Most boomers (69%), 64% of those in gen x and 54% of millennials say they expect fully self-driving cars to become available in the next 10 years.
“Millennials had high expectations for a futuristic automotive experience by the year 2020,” states Matt Schmitz, Cars.com assistant managing editor. “But our research found that while the industry hasn’t advanced as quickly as they envisioned, millennials’ attitude toward automotive is extremely positive and they are the most excited among their generational counterparts to shop for their next vehicle.”
In addition to self-driving cars, 18% of adults 40 to 73 years old and 14% of millennials expect flying cars to become widely available in the next 10 years.
Another reason drivers may not feel compelled to give up their cars is that the majority consumers of all ages describes their attitude toward automotive in general as “happy.”
Drivers happy with owning and driving their own cars is hardly a fertile environment for marketing fully autonomous vehicles.
