AI, intelligent robots and Romanian drivers’ attitudes towards autonomous cars

Products and services based on some form of Artificial Intelligence are beginning to represent an ever-increasing presence in consumers’ daily lives. Already, technologies such as algorithms based on machine learning, digital personal assistants, chatbots, smart devices generically labeled as the Internet of Things, and ultimately physical robots, are all becoming a daily presence in consumers’ lives, conscientiously or unconscientiously, all incorporating a certain degree and level of development and application of Artificial Intelligence. Artificial Intelligence is not without controversy and the debate around it concentrates on several aspects. From the get go, even attempting to define AI will lead to unavoidable debates about what it is and what it is not, how broad can the definition be, so as to cover many of the things we presently call Artificial Intelligence. Once a definition is agreed, usually a broad one, several categories emerge that could represent current applications of Artificial Intelligence, such as recommender algorithms, intelligent assistants, chatbots, and intelligent robots – with respect to the latter, autonomous vehicles are perhaps the most common occurrence. All of these applications of AI have many things in common, but none like the fact that their success depends on being able to feed on enormous amounts of consumer generated data. This opens the door to how this data, largely personal in its nature, is used and the underlying privacy issues that accompany it. To compound the problem, some promote the idea that Artificial Intelligence could advance to a level called AGI where machines would develop self-conscious attributes capable of escaping human control with all accompanying perils to the very existence of humanity. Equally important is how AI may impact on people’s lives, at present, but especially in the future, and how individuals eventually perceive, position themselves and are willing to accept Artificial Intelligence. This paper presents the results of a survey conducted among Romanian drivers in 2021 aimed at revealing how they position themselves in relation to the emergence of autonomous, self-driving cars. It identifies both potential benefits which drivers may associate with self-driving cars, as well as risks and concerns they might have. The balance between the two is critical in driving up acceptance of these technological advancements in our vehicles which are set to become the norm in a nearer or more distant future.