Motorists fear self-driving cars, AAA says

Almost 70% of people said they were afraid of self-driving vehicles, up from 55% last year, according to a new survey from AAA survey. Such findings mean automakers need to do a better job at making self-driving technology safer and more reliable, the auto club said Thursday.

“We were not expecting such a dramatic decline in trust from previous years,” said Greg Brannon, AAA’s director of automotive research, said in a statement. “Although with the number of high-profile crashes that have occurred from over-reliance on current vehicle technologies, this isn’t entirely surprising.”

Most of those high-profile crashes involving self-driving vehicles come from Tesla. Last month, the Elon Musk-owned automaker recalled some 363,000 vehicles with self-driving technology because the cars sometimes ignore posted speed limits or blow past intersections. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched investigations into 35 separate Tesla crashes, 19 of which were fatal, since 2016.