Out of Control: Perceived Fear of Self-Driving Cars

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We are basically living in the future. We have the entire world in our pockets and can communicate with billions of people in a few seconds. We have medical advancements that have substantially increased life expectancy over the past few decades. I can press a button and delicious pizza can be delivered right to my door! With this exponential increase in technology however also comes an increase in fear and skepticism about said technology. Probably the prime example of this is self-driving cars. 

The idea of having a car that drives on its own is unfamiliar to us at this current point in time. For decades we've been the ones to operate cars and we've gotten this far right? Well there have actually have been countless, likely millions, of automobile accidents since its invention - due to humans. And in fact, according to an article by CNBC, right now the biggest problem for people who are developing self-driving cars aren't the machines themselves, but people. Self-driving cars are programmed to follow a strict set of rules based on traffic laws. It turns out it's extremely difficult to code for human thought patterns and intricacies. Our behavior is so incomprehensibly variable when it comes to driving, it's virtually impossible to be able to code very single instance we would do something in a given scenario. This is mostly because we don't even know what we would do in every instance until we actually get into that situation. 

Not only this, but there are regional differences in how people drive as well. Things like the "California stop" and the "Pittsburgh left" mean that for a self-driving car to become commercially viable, they would have to constantly update their coding based on the region it’s in, which is also extremely difficult given the vast spectrum of human behavior and regional differences. Each of us has different social cues and quirks that we exhibit every day - especially while driving - that it would be nearly impossible to program all of those into a car. Some people speed up when they see someone trying to merge, other people break or move into another lane and then speed up or break, etc. There are endless possibilities we could play out on the road. 

So it can be easy to see why people are so against self-driving cars. According to a recent AAA survey, more than 75% of drivers are afraid of self-driving cars, while about 60% of the same people actually want autonomous technology in their cars. People don't want to not be in control, but do want the extra safety features that self-driving cars have, like collision avoidance systems such as forward sensing breaking if a car abruptly stops in front of you. The car would be doing the exact same thing that we would be doing in that situation, that is breaking as quickly as possible to avoid a crash, but the idea that we wouldn't have the ability to stop the car ourselves terrifies us. 

This all comes down to perceived locus of control. Real quick psychology 101 refresher: There are two types of loci of control: internal and external. Internal locus of control means you believe you have a lot of control over your situation and can affect outcomes, whereas external locus of control means you believe you have little control over your situation and outcomes are affected mostly by external forces. For example if I believed that I could learn a new language because I have access to books, tapes, and other resources to teach me that language, I would have an external locus of control. If I believed I could learn a new language because I am determined and can discipline myself to a consistent schedule to teach myself, I would have an internal locus of control. 

A 2002 article published by Icek Ajzen in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology finds that when people think they have the opportunity and resources to accomplish something, and if the obstacles are low enough, they will have the confidence to perform that behavior, thus resulting in higher levels of perceived behavioral control. If we have perceived control over a situation, we are reinforcing our internal locus of control and feel much more confident in our ability to act appropriately in that situation. Therefore actually being behind the wheel and having that perceived level of control on the operation of a vehicle makes us feel like we have a lot of influence on outcomes in traffic situations, when in actuality there are a lot of external factors that affect our driving ability, namely weather, road conditions, and most importantly other drivers. However the fact that we have complete control of a vehicle could seemingly over-inflate our internal locus of control.

We also get an ego boost when we have knowledge that if there was something we wanted to do, we could actually do it. It makes us feel not only happy, but significant in the vastness of existence when we have a direct impact on our surroundings. When what we do affects and has lasting physical changes on the world around us we can recognize that we are meaningful. Therefore, it makes sense that we wouldn't want to willingly give that up in fear of losing our sense of purpose and self-worth in addition to not having any influence on dangerous, often life-threatening situations. 

Self-driving cars functionally challenge our sense of perceived behavioral control, and thus our place in this world. It is extremely difficult for us to relinquish control of something that we do on a daily basis, and that is one of the most dangerous activities in the world, to an autonomous system we have little influence over. We don't want to trust that a robot car could drive safer and more efficiently than we could, especially because driving is such an integral part of our lives. People are currently more dangerous than a computer code due to our unpredictability, emotionality, and volatility - arguably some of the very things that make us human to begin with.

I definitely understand that if every car on the road was self-driving, there would be virtually no accidents, which is something I think we all find appealing. I do believe that if exponential technological advancement is inevitable we will eventually adapt to the probably safer option and become more trusting and comfortable with relinquishing control to a machine. So would I be a passenger in a self-driving car? Maybe someday, but for right now I'll live in my healthy skepticism (fear really, I've seen Terminator) of autonomous cars until all the kinks are worked out.

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