Americans want to preserve the driving experience: survey

Long thought to be less interested in vehicle ownership and driving, 81% of millennial drivers in America say they like, love or are passionate about driving, finds a survey by Hagerty. These findings are in line with Gen Xers (78%) and baby boomers (79%).

Further, 57% of all drivers believe a movement will be needed to preserve the driving experience when autonomous cars are the norm.

“Full autonomy is going to save lives, make commuting easier and unclog cities,” says McKeel Hagerty, CEO of Hagerty. “But these survey results indicate that people, including millennials, are always going to want to drive themselves.”

Here are some additional findings.

• 79% of all respondents are passionate about, love or like driving.
• 85% say driving is an important part of American culture.
• 81% say learning to drive a car is a rite of passage worth preserving.
• 71% say driving is often fun even when they’re not driving for fun.
• 70% say driving is “time for myself.”
• 61% say driving was often a positive emotional experience.
• 59% say driving is a form of stress release.
• 77% agree they’d rather drive themselves on an open winding road.

On the subject of autonomous vehicles, the survey finds that 85% of people will always want the option of driving a car themselves, and 79% aren’t willing to see driving disappear. Supporting the desire for co-existence among autonomous and human-driven vehicles, the survey finds that 66% of respondents didn’t think automation has to threaten the benefits of driving.

“One of our goals will be to work with policymakers so that years or even decades from now when the bulk of cars are fully autonomous, the act of driving is protected,” Hagerty says in a release. “We also want to facilitate the discussion about what driving looks like in the future – will driving someday be mostly a suburban activity? Will there be driving parks or experience centers? Will cars that drive themselves increase interest in the analog experience of driving yourself at times? We suspect so, but now’s the time to have those conversations.”

About the survey

Hagerty commissioned the survey in response to the rapid rise of autonomous vehicle technology. The survey polled a thousand U.S. drivers 18 years and older. The mixed pool of respondents consisted of millennials (35%), Generation X (26%), baby boomers (31%), and the silent generation (8%). The margin of error is +/-3.1 percent. The survey was fielded in spring 2018.

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