As with the findings from the sister studies, there is a marked gender divide, with women expressing more negative views of driverless technology across all questions. Similarly, age also plays a role, albeit to a lesser degree, with older Londoners generally more likely to be sceptical about the technology.
Do Londoners think driverless public transport will ever be as safe as it is with human drivers?
While some are still clearly sceptical about the safety of self-driving buses and trains, there are expectations that the technology will eventually be good enough to be as safe as when operated by humans.
More than six in ten Londoners (64%) say that technology will one day be good enough to make self-driving London Underground trains as safe as human-driven versions, with only 23% disputing that this will ever be the case.
When it comes to self-driving regular trains, the figures are almost identical: 62% think they will one day be as safe as human-driven examples, while 24% disagree.
As our driverless cars study showed, a lower 51% think self-driving cars will ever be able to reach the same standards, although this still significantly outweighs the 31% who think the opposite.
However, expectations are gloomiest when it comes to self-driving buses. Here Londoners are split: only 39% think they will ever be as safe as human-driven buses, compared to 41% who say this won’t happen.
Source: yougov.com
