Three out of four U.S. drivers report feeling “afraid” to ride in a self-driving car, according to a new survey from AAA. With today’s heightened focus on autonomous vehicles, this fear poses a potential concern to the automotive industry as consumers may be reluctant to fully embrace the self-driving car.
Despite this significant fear, AAA also found that drivers who own vehicles equipped with semi-autonomous features are, on average, 75 percent more likely to trust the technology than those that do not own it, suggesting that gradual experience with these advanced features can ease consumer fears.
“With the rapid advancement towards autonomous vehicles, American drivers may be hesitant to give up full control,” said John Nielsen, AAA’s managing director of Automotive Engineering and Repair.
ARI was named to Fortune’s 2017 100 Best Companies to Work For® list for the fifth year in a row, coming in at Number 38.
ARI continues to be the only fleet management company, the highest among the companies headquartered in New Jersey of which there are only three, and only one of four companies headquartered in the Philadelphia region named to this annual list that recognizes companies that have exceptional workplace cultures.
“Being named to Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list for a fifth consecutive year is an incredible honor,” said Chris Conroy, president and CEO of Holman Business Services and president of ARI.
Proposals for a border tax to pay for a wall with Mexico and encourage increased manufacturing in the U.S. would add hundreds to thousands of dollars to the cost of every car and truck sold here, including those assembled in American factories.
There’s even a risk the tax could raise prices and reduce sales so much that the U.S. loses manufacturing jobs, according to the Motor Equipment Manufacturers Association, the umbrella group for several supplier associations representing 1,000 companies.
Analysts, associations and experts say the tax could add $2,000 to $2,500 to the average cost of a vehicle sold in the U.S.
Without an internal combustion engine, without a transmission, without a radiator, tomorrow's cars won't need to look like the cars we know today.
What will they look like? Volkswagen says the self-driving cars of tomorrow won't have angry, man-eating faces, for one.
At the 2017 Geneva motor show, Volkswagen rolled out its Sedric, its first fully electric, self-driving car concept. Capable of Level 5 autonomous driving, the Sedric maps out how Volkswagen will develop cars that can accelerate, brake, and steer themselves.
"Time is money" is an overused cliché.
Yet, in today's hypercompetitive technology marketplace, it's never been truer.
The most sophisticated CAD (Computer Aided Design), fluidynamics and crash simulation programs used by auto manufacturers cannot replace actual testing and the various stage gates in the large-scale manufacturing process, but that will soon change.