[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Nine out of ten drivers request more technological training to drive their car
- 76% percent believe that a brand or dealer should be a «technology instructor» instead of a driving school or the DGT (Department of Traffic)
- Two out of three cannot imagine themselves in a self-driving car
Madrid, November 30, 2016. It is more than a chassis and four wheels. The car incorporates increasingly more technological advances, and the drivers faced with so much change and innovation request more technological training to use it. At least 90% of drivers declare, as stated in the Report II «Spaniards facing the New Mobility,» prepared by the Mobility Demoscopy Center formed by the Pons Seguridad Vial consultant, the Autofácil magazine, the LaInformacion.com portal and the AutoScout24 online vehicle platform.
A need for training will also increase with all the changes that are coming. In fact, 60% think that the self-driving car will completely change the training needed by the user. However, there are currently many doubts among drivers about self-driving, since two out of three can’t imagine themselves in a self-driving car, although 30% are open to changing their minds in the future. In contrast, 34% say that they are willing to try it.
It is also interesting to compare the perception of the self-driving cars according to which ages reject it more or less. Thus, among young people between 18 and 24 years of age, the level of rejection to stop driving and to «be driven» is greater, 28.5%, than among adults aged 55-64, 10%. When a driver first begins to drive, they truly prefer to drive, while getting into the more adult ages they begin to prefer comfort, also due to the loss of their faculties.
And technology today?
Nonetheless, despite the swings of opinion among the Spanish in reference to the self-driving car, there is no case of rejection of the technology in the vehicle, on the contrary, since eight out of ten claim that they frequently use all of the features found in their car.
However, with all the technology included in cars and everything that is coming, drivers need someone to teach them, a role that is attributed up to 76% to brands and dealers. In contrast, only one in four think it should be in the aftermarket of the vehicle and 20%, the driving schools. Even lower, the DGT (Department of Traffic), only 15% state that this entity should be the leader of this technological instruction. Therefore, it is no longer just a question of learning to drive, but also knowing how to drive an increasingly technological car, but in this case the driver thinks that he/she needs more specific and direct help.
However, at the moment technology is not one of the main factors of purchase, despite its growing importance, as was evident in the first edition of this study, which placed price, consumption and design as the three fundamental deciding factors when purchasing a car. Connectivity was very high, a protagonist of the current technological developments and already common in the vehicles that we drive, but at the moment it is not a deciding factor.
Learning to drive is no longer the same
The truth is that with all the changes cars are experiencing, Spaniards see more than ever the need to refresh their knowledge about driving. In this sense, seven out of ten are in favour of updating their knowledge from time to time. In fact, even 30% of the drivers who got their license less than ten years ago think that they would not pass now, a percentage that is interestingly somewhat less among those who got it more than a decade ago than among those who got it more recently.
In addition, drivers not only think that they must bring themselves up to date, but so must the driving schools, that if most of them pass (70%), they must improve the practical training and update the training material. The same is true for the psychotechnical with which we can then renew the license, since two out of three consider that the current method is not really useful to determine each person’s ability to drive.
According to Shara Martín, general manager of PONS Seguridad Vial, «a few months ago the DGT (Department of Traffic) advanced its intention to enable the possibility of taking the driving test using a vehicle equipped with an assisted parking system. It is a step, but there are many technological advances incorporated into the car and we cannot fall so far behind, we can’t think that driving a car today is like it was 20 years ago, and the drivers themselves are aware that it is no longer about a steering wheel and two-three pedals, there is much more and more technology, so you have to rethink your training.”
In the words of Juan Hernández Luike, of Autofácil, «the horizon of the automobile appears to be the self-driving car, but it currently generates more doubts than desires to ride in one. There is a lot of ignorance around it and generally drivers consider that they need more information and knowledge about all the technological advances that their car already has today. We can have a good understanding of how a car battery works or how to check the engine oil level, but someone should explain to us how to lock the car with a smartphone or how to drive with the mobile screen replicated on the dashboard screen.”
For Gerardo Cabañas, general manager of AutoScout24, «there is a lot of talk about the future role of the dealers, they will continue to do what they do, mainly sell, but that they must also assume a technological role. On the one hand, prescriber, which car suits my needs technologically speaking; and instructor, how does the incorporated technology work. When a user takes the car he has bought, 95% of the seller’s explanation will be technological, and the remaining 5%, or less, for things such as where is the lever that opens the hood.”
About the report
The II Report «Spaniards facing the New Mobility,» prepared by the Mobility Demoscopy Center formed by PONS Seguridad Vial, Autofácil AutoScout24 and Lainformacion.com, analyses the opinions of 4,445 participants in the survey published between October 3 and November 8. This study is the result of the research work of the Mobility Demoscopy Center created by the four organizations to periodically analyse the impact and the evolution of the new mobility phenomenon among Spaniards through surveys.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
