Lack of Knowledge and Inexperience are Common Themes for Unchanged Consumer Sentiment about Mobility Technologies

COSTA MESA, Calif.: 23 Jan. 2020 — Consumers continue to lack confidence in the future mobility technologies that automakers are eager to bring to market. According to the J.D. Power 2019 Q4 Mobility Confidence Index Study fueled by SurveyMonkey Audience,^SM released today, the Mobility Confidence Index remains 36 (on a 100-point scale) for self-driving vehicles and 55 for battery-electric vehicles for a third consecutive quarter.

“Consumer opinion doesn’t change overnight, especially when it comes to new mobility technologies, but the more consumers are exposed to these technologies, the more the needle might gradually move towards acceptance,” said Kristin Kolodge, executive director of driver interaction & human machine interface research at J.D. Power. “Right now, they simply don’t know enough to fully put their trust in these systems.”

The quarterly study, which will include feedback from Canadian respondents in 2020, is the pulse of market readiness and acceptance for self-driving and battery-electric vehicles, as seen through the eyes of consumers and industry experts. Sentiment is segmented into three categories: low (0-40), neutral (41-60) and positive (61-100). J.D. Power is joined by global survey software company SurveyMonkey to conduct the study in which more than 6,000 consumers and industry experts were polled about self-driving vehicles and more than 5,000 were polled about battery-electric vehicles.

Following are key findings about self-driving vehicles:

“Knowledge is power,” Kolodge said. “There is an association between self-reported knowledge level of self-driving vehicles and likelihood to purchase. Undoubtedly, it is critical for consumers to gain experience even through lower levels of automation.”

Following are key findings about battery-electric vehicles:

“For automakers it is critical that the coming wave of new products stimulates new consumer demand,” Kolodge said. “Otherwise, too many products will continue to chase too few customers, which will be financially disastrous for many automakers.”

“This data should be alarming to automakers, who have work to do in informing and persuading consumers to accept self-driving vehicles,” says Jon Cohen, chief research officer at SurveyMonkey. “Only 32% of consumers say they know a great deal or a fair amount about self-driving vehicles. And only 18% say they are extremely or very comfortable riding in a self-driving vehicle. The same percentage say they are extremely or very comfortable being on the road with others using self-driving vehicles.”

See the online press release at http://www.jdpower.com/pr-id/2020003.

J.D. Power is a global leader in consumer insights, advisory services and data and analytics. These capabilities enable J.D. Power to help its clients drive customer satisfaction, growth and profitability. Established in 1968, J.D. Power has offices serving North America, Asia Pacific and Europe.

SurveyMonkey (NASDAQ: SVMK) is a leading global survey software company on a mission to power the curious. The company’s People Powered Data platform empowers over 17 million active users to measure and understand feedback from employees, customers, website and app users, and the market. SurveyMonkey’s products, enterprise solutions and integrations enable 335,000+ organizations to solve daily challenges, from delivering better customer experiences to increasing employee retention. With SurveyMonkey, organizations around the world can transform feedback into business intelligence that drives growth and innovation.

Media Relations Contacts
Geno Effler, J.D. Power; Costa Mesa, Calif.; 714-621-6224; media.relations@jdpa.com
Shane Smith; East Coast; 424-903-3665; ssmith@pacificcommunicationsgroup.com
Sandra Gharib, SurveyMonkey; sandrag@surveymonkey.com

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