Driverless cars: public trust peril in 5 hyperbolic headlines
Self-driving experts talk constantly of the need to earn public trust, but driverless cars continue to divide opinion. Indeed, recent surveys have shown that people are becoming more, not less, wary of them.
Just this week, in Inverness, Scotland, where an autonomous bus trial is due to start later this year, The Inverness Courier reported significant resistance to the idea. 69% of respondents to its survey of local residents said they would refuse to get on a driverless bus.
What we need, of course, is for the media to convey an informed and nuanced safety message. Hmm! To illustrate the scale of the task, here’s a list of our top five hyperbolic headlines:
Top 5 driverless car hyperbolic headlines
At No.5, a downbeat new entry from The Express: “Driverless cars could have a ‘negative impact’ – ‘worrying results’ for road users”.
At No.4, peak pessimism in this 2019 classic from The New York Post: “Why humanity will come to regret inventing self-driving cars”.
At No.3, a prediction of economic disaster from The Telegraph in 2019: “Driverless cars are the new dot-com bubble”.
At No.2, straight up weird from Forbes in 2019: “Self-Driving Cars Could Spark A Religious Revival Among Young Americans”.
And, at No.1, another new entry, straight into the top spot, from Yahoo News in November 2021: “Watch Tesla’s full self-driving mode almost kill a CNN reporter”.
The autonomous vehicle industry has a consumer confidence mountain to climb!
