Solo vs. self-driving rideshares
Rideshare services like Uber and Lyft have made life more convenient for many people, but that hasn’t come without controversy. Safety concerns for riders and stricter background checks for drivers have always been top of mind issues.Â
Similarly, the emergence of driverless cars has also caused a stir about public safety on the road. With Uber and Lyft preparing to add autonomous vehicles to their fleets, we wanted to see if Americans were ready to replace rideshare drivers with driverless cars.
We polled 2,000 Americans to find out if people had more trust in self-driving cars or riding alone in a driver-operated rideshare vehicle.
We found:Â
- 53 percent of people felt safer taking a self-driving car than driver-operated rideshare alone.
- Baby Boomers (age 55-plus) were the only age group to prefer a solo Uber ride over a driverless car.
- Gen Z (ages 18–24) were most open to driverless rideshares: 40 percent said they were willing to hail a ride from one.
It turns out that while we may have doubts about self-driving cars, some Americans are ready to hail a ride from a driverless vehicle.[1] Surprisingly, getting in a rideshare vehicle alone is more terrifying than riding in a self-driving car for some. When you aren’t behind the wheel, which method of transportation would you trust more?