For the findings published in the journal Transportation, the research team studied how Americans' perceived cost of commute time changes depending on who's driving. Through a survey, the team found that people considered a ride-hailing service at least 13 per cent "less expensive," in terms of time, compared to driving themselves. If the researchers told people the ride-hailing service was driverless, however, then the cost of travel time increased to 15 per cent more than driving a personal car, suggesting that at least for now, people would rather drive themselves than have an autonomous vehicle drive them. During the survey, the research team asked people across the continental US to select between a personal car or a ride-hailing service for a 15-mile commute trip. Half the 502 respondents were told that the ride-hailing service was driverless.

The researchers converted the responses to a score of how much respondents deemed that trip would cost per hour. "If someone values their trip time at $15 per hour, that means they dislike an hour spent travelling as much as they dislike giving up $15, so a lower number means that the time spent travelling for that trip is less burdensome," said study co-author and Indian-origin researcher Andisheh Ranjbari. According to the researchers, driverless cars aren't commercially available yet, so people are not familiar with them or may be leery of the technology.