Self-driving cars yet to gain public trust

Audi's tech chief says that self-driving vehicle technology – or Piloted Driving, as Audi puts it – has caught the public's imagination, but admits it is yet to win the hearts and minds of consumers in a practical sense.

It is somewhat ironic that Audi vehicles feature in movies such as I Robot and, more recently, Avengers: The Age of Ultron — both of which feature malevolent artificial intelligence (AI).

Audi has invested so much capital in the technology of autonomous vehicle technology that now it must start the marketing process to make people begin to trust the work its engineers have put in.

To that end, the company's board member for technical development, Professor Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, and its head of electrics and electronics, Ricky Hudi, defined Audi's vision for the roads of tomorrow with motoring.com.au at the inaugural 2015 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Asia in Shanghai this week.

"It [public acceptance] is an interesting point – we are also learning about that," said Dr Hackenberg. "It is subjective, it is emotional, it is how we learn about such systems.

“For example, when we made the trip from Silicon Valley to Las Vegas with people that had never been driven by such an automatic system, the reaction was impressive.”

“One journalist spoke of his experience. It was like when his daughter had just got her license and was sitting in the driver’s seat. He felt uncomfortable initially, but as the trust built he become more and more comfortable relinquishing that control.

"With the Piloted Drive system, after a time it became normal — the normality of the system was the most spectacular thing.

"It is important to get the confidence of the customer, but I think it is just the process of using the system.”

When people get out of autonomous cars they say it feels like the next generation of cruise control. Remember when you first used cruise control years ago and hovered your foot above the brake pedal, just in case?

Audi understands it takes time to build up trust, but Audi's marketing campaign for the piloted cars arriving in the next few years will walk the fine line between excitement and safety.  

Piloted driving will be a step by step process, so some question the way Audi and others are presenting a future in which 'drivers' can watch movies, read books or surf the internet after switching on the Piloted Driving system.

Some say that such promotion in this day and age is just adding to the potential for driver distraction that this busy, media-rich world is already putting in front of us.

Audi says that in theory it is only human drivers that become tired or get distracted by footpath sights, media devices or other in-car disturbances.

And Audi's next-generation A8 limousine, due in 2017, will come with all the Piloted Driving technology that is legal to date.

“If you have a system that is running well and is running for risk reduction, then this will increase safety,” counters Hackenberg.

“If [Piloted Drive] is doing this in a well way, then it is possible for the driver to get some information that is not so important for the control of the car,” says Dr Hakenberg.

But Audi cannot really do Piloted Driving by itself. It has shown it can do partnerships well, joining with Google and other tech companies for example to establish the Open Automotive Alliance group to create better, safer auto technology.

Part of Audi's effort to gain trust in Piloted Drive will be partnering with other car manufactures, town planners, infrastructure tech companies and, importantly, government departments to create a standard way for future road infrastructure and other vehicles to talk to each other at the digital level.

“A specific standardisation so that the cars can understand themselves, so it is important that the different car manufactures are working together," said Dr Hackenberg.

"We have to have basic standards for connectivity, but it is not only the cars — it is also the infrastructure, so all cars need to understand when a traffic light for example switches from red to green, or information given by the infrastructure about a traffic jam or service problem with the roads.

“There are working groups organised by the authorities and ourselves to realise such standardisations."