Autonomous cars, once the preserve of science-fiction, are rapidly becoming a reality.
If you bought a car thirty years ago, you'd get an engine, some pedals and a round disc-shaped object with which to steer. Now though, you can buy a car which brakes if it detects an obstacle, keeps you in lane on the motorway and tells you if you're falling asleep.
And with companies like Google and Volvo investing in fully autonomous vehicles which remove the driver from the equation entirely, we could be seeing self-driving cars on the road in the not-too-distant future.
But it seems as if drivers are wary about the new technology. Research commissioned by Bosch has found that over half of motorists would feel unsafe in an autonomous vehicle.
In addition to this, 27 per cent of motorists believe that the adoption of driverless cars would be ineffective in reducing accidents numbers, and only 29 per cent would consider buying a self-driving car.
The underlying systems which keep us safe on the roads have more support. Over half of all motorists are happy with technologies such as Driver Drowsiness Detection, Predictive Emergency Braking System, Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Departure Warning being fitted to their vehicles.
Peter Fouquet, president of Bosch UK, believes that the results are encouraging, saying: "Our research clearly shows consumers have confidence in driver assistance technologies such as Driver Drowsiness Detection. With each innovation, we move a step closer to the goal of accident-free and fully automated driving."
