The AV Revolution Has Arrived.

• Author: Yost, Tim
• Position: GOING PLACES - Survey

WHILE THE FUTURE of mobility almost universally is thought to rest upon the pillar of autonomous vehicles, traditional automakers and suppliers have their work cut out for them both in exposing consumers to the advantages of AVs on one hand and in not ceding AV leadership and profits to technology companies on the other.

At the same time, though, traditional auto companies may have at least a decent foundation to build on, as 29% of consumers say they would be willing to consider buying an AV and to pay an incremental $2,600 on average for the privilege, and 20% of those are the early-adopters who see themselves buying an AV within the first year it is offered for sale and are willing to pay an incremental $3,500 or more. That is the conclusion of the results of a survey of American drivers by AlixPartners.

Perhaps the two most-sobering findings for automakers and their suppliers in the survey is that 49% of consumers say they do not at present feel confident in AVs' abilities to navigate them safely and, perhaps because of that lack of confidence, 55% indicate they are unlikely to consider purchasing an AV.

On the safety front, there were two top worries, among several possibilities: 84% of respondents say they are concerned about vehicle-software malfunctions in AVs, while 80% say the same about potential hardware malfunctions. Meanwhile, cyber security issues with AVs also are on consumers' minds. For instance, 77% say they would be wary of their AV being hacked and taken over, and 75% worry about having their personal data stolen from an AV.

Two pieces of encouraging news in the survey that might give auto companies hope that the more they can expose consumers to AVs the more successful they will be are these: consumer awareness of AVs as a concept now stands at a near-universal 97%. up from 90% in a similar AlixPartners survey in 2016--and. in the most-recent survey. 18% say they already have experienced vehicles with at least some level of AV features, up from three percent in the 2016 survey, perhaps suggesting quicker consumer adoption indeed is ahead. Of this subset of potential early-adopters, 49% say they feel "confident" or "very confident" about the ability of AVs to navigate on roadways safely, vs. 26% among those who have not experienced AV features.

The survey also reveals a consumer-preferences shift when it comes product features in AVs versus today's vehicles, so automakers might want to adjust their product-development...