Beginning of July 2019, I start my MBA internship at my current company – Neckermann Strategic Advisors. Lukas, Founder and Managing Director of the firm, warmly welcomed me and set the expectation of the main assignment: “Let’s write a piece of research about Autonomous Vehicle Human-Machine Interaction (AV HMI).”
Indeed, thanks to our partner 7th Sense UK, we had just received fresh data collected in May/June 2019 on 3,000 UK mobility users. I was so excited to dive into these data to extract the most important takeaways related to AVs. During the first week of July, I identified that 60+% of the respondents were against sharing an AV and 75+% were not comfortable with the technology.
From these strong statements, I wanted to dive deeper into the human aspect of the autonomous industry and to interview experts from all around the world to collect the opinion of mobility players. I had the chance to meet and interview 20+ high profiles from companies such as Five AI, Mercedes, London School of Economy, British Government and other major institutions in just a few weeks. It was fascinating to discuss a topic that most of the previous studies and experts have under covered: people adoption and private ownership of autonomous vehicles. I can only be grateful for their participation, availability and motivation to support the Mobility Revolution™ in the right direction.
We collected so much information from these discussions that at the end of August I came up with a piece of work including 12,000+ words, instead of the 15-20 pages initially planned! That’s the moment when Lukas and I decided to turn this piece of research into a proper study to share with our current and prospective partners around the world.
Thanks to an incredible effort from Lukas and our editing partners during September, we built an amazing study ready to go public called “Being Driven, a study on human adoption and ownership of autonomous vehicles”. Lukas presented in premiere the insights at the Dubai World Congress for Self-Transportation mid-October (video to come, stay tuned!) and by the end of this very same month, our press release went out with awesome results. Indeed, we have been featured so far in more than 20 international newspapers and websites, from Canada to Singapore and from South Africa to the Nordics, including an unexpected article on Forbes! (a selection of websites is available at the end of this article).
It was the first time for me I had to conduct an intercontinental press release, a process for which I was not familiar at all. Great experience, I am already excited about the next one!
I can only be proud of this achievement at 28 years old and only 3 months after my MBA graduation (for which I just learned that I am featured in the Dean’s list – i.e. top 10% of students).
I thought that the most challenging part was behind us but… I was wrong. Now is the time to manage people contacting us to know more about our findings and how we can activate our recommendations.
To conclude this article, one activation from the study that is particularly important for me is the interest, desire and somehow need from the autonomous mobility industry to have a supra- and neutral-organisation, backed by academics and officials, to coordinate the mobility players interactions and be the strong and unified voice towards the people. Please join us in building this organisation and, together, making autonomous vehicles a dream that comes true sooner.
You can find more information about our study on its website – www.Being-Driven.com – and contact me at hello@frederic-john.com
Acknowledgement:
I cannot thank enough Lukas for having given me the chance to meet amazing people and to write this study with him, enjoying his author experience during this fantastic adventure. I also thank 7th Sense for their collaboration and all the interviewees for their time, advice and passion about the Mobility Revolution™
Selected features:
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterlyon/2019/10/31/ownership-obsession-and-fear-of-technology-seen-as-biggest-barriers-to-shared-autonomous-mobility/#440dc62a6bf0
- https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/latest-fleet-news/connected-fleet/2019/11/01/three-quarters-of-drivers-reject-autonomous-mobility
- https://www.verdict.co.uk/motor-finance-online/news/neckermann-75-of-drivers-not-ready-for-autonomous-tech/
- https://insurance-edge.net/2019/11/01/research-car-owners-cant-emotionally-invest-in-autonomous-vehicles/
- https://www.tu-auto.com/majority-of-drivers-not-ready-for-autonomy/
- https://www.fleetpoint.org/autonomous-vehicles/fear-of-technology-and-obsession-with-ownership-are-barriers-to-autonomous-mobility/
- https://www.msn.com/en-ca/autos/news/drivers-dont-trust-autonomous-vehicle-technology-and-data-sharing/ar-AAJNVwy?li=AAhp1o8
- https://uk.news.yahoo.com/uk-motorists-resistant-autonomous-cars-080000066.html?guccounter=1
- https://valenciacars.blogspot.com/2019/10/75-por-ciento-conductores-no-listos-adoptar-conduccion-autonoma.html
- http://www.iaea-online.org/news/2019/11/barriers-of-shared-autonomous-mobility-revealed.aspx
- https://www.autonomousvehicleinternational.com/news/adas/study-highlights-autonomous-fears.html
- https://www.fleetforward.com/344104/uk-study-60-prefer-owning-driverless-cars-not-sharing-them
- https://cyprus-mail.com/2019/11/10/biggest-barriers-to-shared-autonomous-mobility-revealed/
- https://autofile.ca/en-ca/auto-news/drivers-dont-trust-autonomous-vehicle-technology-and-data-sharing
- https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-witness/20191107/282291027044417
- https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/motoring/humans-not-ready-for-shared-autonomous-mobility-study
- https://www.scoop.it/topic/wiper-lightning-systems/p/4112374418/2019/11/10/drivers-don-t-trust-autonomous-vehicle-technology-and-data-sharing
- https://www.autonomes-fahren.de/strategic-advisors-studie-zum-autonomen-fahren/
- https://www.upstation.asia/sg/humans-not-ready-for-shared-autonomous-mobility-study/