Manitobans divided on driverless cars: survey

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This article was published 15/11/2017 (2352 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitobans are fairly split on whether they favour the introduction of self-driving cars, but perhaps most surprising is that men are more accepting of computerized chauffeurs than women.

Those are the results of a short survey recently released by Prairie Research Associates. The survey said a slim majority (54 per cent) of Manitobans believe driverless cars will positively impact society, while 40 per cent believe they’ll be harmful.

By gender, 64 per cent of men and only 44 per cent of women favour driverless cars. As well, only 48 per cent of Manitobans think they’ll be safer, but by gender 62 per cent of men and only 36 per cent of women share that view.

“There’s this stereotypical view about men that they’re the ones who like to drive,” said Nicholas Borodenko, partner at Prairie Research Associates.

“It’s just surprising that men are more positive than women. It’s just inherent in men to be more negative. There’s such a difference between men and women, and men see it as safer.”

The survey also explored the hypothesis self-driving vehicles would result in a reduction of private ownership of cars, as users would summon driverless ride-sharing vehicles and thus only bear a fraction of the cost of vehicle ownership.

“There’s this thought that instead of us owning our own vehicles, there would be this Uber force of self-driving vehicles just out there, and we would push a button and one would show up,” Borodenko said.

That didn’t fly with respondents, as 76 per cent said they’d prefer to own their own driverless car rather than use ride-sharing.

“The only group more likely to use ride-sharing were the people who aren’t doing a lot of driving now and don’t need to spend a bunch of money owning a car,” Borodenko said, pointing to respondents 65 and older.

He said while the survey didn’t break out millennials, previous research suggests this group is not in favour of private ownership and would be more likely to use ride-sharing as well.

Borodenko said the survey was funded entirely by Prairie Research Associates with no outside influence.

The survey reached 800 Manitobans by telephone between Sept. 6 and Oct. 2 and is considered accurate within plus or minus 3.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

It served only to satisfy the company’s curiosity given the expanding coverage of self-driving vehicles in the media.

“Every time we do our omnibus surveys, we generally add in a few questions of our own interest,” he said. “I’m curious about a lot of things.”

He said his team doesn’t have immediate plans to explore the issues further, but expects to track similar questions over time to see how responses change as Manitoba gets closer to having its own driverless vehicles on the road.

kelly.taylor@freepress.mb.ca