Study Reveals Apple, Tesla Most Trusted To Make Driverless Cars, Volkswagen Invested the Most

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The total investment in driverless technology is $100 billion to date – but the companies that are adding millions (and billions) of dollars to the pot might surprise you.

An independent survey of 1,000 people across the UK to find who the driving public trust to make driverless cars, comparing brands by their place in the market has yielded some interesting results. The study finds who has invested the biggest share of the total $100+Billion investment into driverless technology and finally, who is set to win the race to the first driverless car on the road.

We’re closer than ever to driverless cars, with predictions surfacing that they could be on UK roads by the end of 2019. Understandably, this latest technological revolution is big business – and everyone wants to big the first to market. But who does the public trust?

In order to gauge the trust placed in the full automotive market, car brands were placed into separate categories according to their place in the market- involving categories of luxury, executive and budget car brands, plus tech giants and taxi companies – then presented to the respondents in order to see who has won the public’s trust. Here are the categories according to place in the market-

Luxury Brands (Tesla, Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz)

One of the shocking results of the study was the finding that Tesla was the most trusted brand when it came to luxury automakers. With the relative newness of the brand and not to mention a few controversies with the vehicles and management, it shows that consumers believe that the heritage luxury brands are not up to speed enough with the latest developments to produce the goods in the driverless car market and that, here, innovation comes before legacy.

Percentage of respondents who trust the brand to produce driverless cars:

Tesla – 26.6%
Audi – 22.4%
Mercedes-Benz – 17.9%
BMW – 16.6%
Land Rover – 9.6%
Jaguar – 6.9%

Executive Brands (Ford, Honda, Nissan, Renault, Toyota, Volkswagen, Volvo)

In the executive category, Volvo came out on top, with 22.6% of the public trusting this brand to produce a driverless car, closely followed by Volkswagen (22.4%). In the same field, Renault has particularly failed to make an impact in the driverless car field – with only 4.1% trusting the established brand to produce driverless vehicles.

Percentage of respondents who trust the brand to produce driverless cars:

Volvo – 22.6%
Volkswagen – 22.4%
Ford – 15.3%
Toyota – 13.2%
Nissan – 11.6%
Honda – 10.8%
Renault – 4.1%

Budget Brands (Chrysler, Citroen, Hyundai, Peugeot)

Another surprising result came from almost half (46.7%) of respondents trusting the South Korean brand, Hyundai, to produce a driverless vehicle – with much lower results for budget competitors Citroen (14.8%), Chrysler (17.6%) and Peugeot (20.9%).

Percentage of respondents who trust the brand to produce driverless cars:

Hyundai – 46.7%
Peugeot – 20.9%
Chrysler – 17.6%
Citroen – 14.8%

Tech Companies (Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung)

31.3% of drivers trust tech giant Apple to produce a driverless car – which must hurt for former leader Microsoft to have fallen so far behind rivals in the trust levels for such an innovative product – with only 11.6% of the public trusting Microsoft with driverless technology. Interestingly, Amazon is trusted by 15.6% of drivers, whilst 16.2% trust fellow tech giant Samsung.

Percentage of respondents who trust the brand to produce driverless cars:

Apple – 31.3%
Google – 25.4%
Samsung – 16.2%
Amazon – 15.6%
Microsoft – 11.5%

Who Has Contributed To The $100+ Billion Investment In The Technology

The total investment in driverless technology is $100 billion to date – but the companies that are adding millions (and billions) of dollars to the pot might surprise you. Volkswagen is leading the pack with an investment of a whopping $54.2 billion – giving Volkswagen a 57% share in the total $100 billion investment. This is followed by a comparatively meagre investment by Samsung of $8bn, which although is the second highest investment into driverless technology, is only 8.5% share in the total investments overall.

Total shares of $100 billion investment (correct as of February 2019):