Victorian tollroad operator EastLink says the autonomous vehicle hype bubble has well and truly burst for motorists, more of whom are showing a reluctance to cede full control to machines.

A survey of 18,000 road users, which EastLink claims to be the world’s largest of its type, suggests that although drivers are warming to features like adaptive cruise control and lane keeping technology, they still don’t trust robots enough to let them drive on their own.

EastLink’s spokesman Doug Spencer-Roy said the reduced desire for fully self-driving cars shows that drivers’ expectations had become over-inflated by hype, and they’re now “becoming more realistic” about the capabilities of autonomous vehicles.

More than 80 percent of respondents indicated they would be happy to travel as a passenger in a fully self-driving car if there was a human driver monitoring the situation who could intervene and take control if need be.
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