Special Eurobarometer 427: Autonomous Systems

This Eurobarometer survey is about people's perception of robots, autonomous cars and drones. With these technologies becoming more mainstream, it is important to understand what people think and to assess the extent to which people will accept robots performing certain functions. It builds on a previous study conducted in 2012, and looks at ways in which attitudes may have changed over the last two years. While this development is accelerating, most people appear unaware of how much responsibility we have already outsourced to machines and intelligent algorithms. Thus, the first goal of this study would be to determine the level of awareness among European citizens of this phenomenon. Secondly, we want to determine to what extent people are open to these technological advances. Are they willing to use autonomous vehicles? Do they mind planes flying more or less on their own? To advance with our research in this area and to faciliate uptake, we have to have a better understanding of what know about autonomous systems and how they feel about them. While it is admittedly difficult for people to really assess how they are going to react to future technologies, answers to these and similar questions can at least provide an indication of people's feelings. Thirdly, this study would emphasise DG CONNECT's stake in this important, forward-looking topic. Autonomoy will become a key regulatory challenge in the future, and DG CONNECT can become the worldwide frontrunner in this field. To reach these objectives, the idea is to conduct a Eurobarometer survey in all 28 EU MS. #####The results by volumes are distributed as follows: * Volume A: Countries * Volume AA: Groups of countries * Volume A' (AP): Trends * Volume AA' (AAP): Trends of groups of countries * Volume B: EU/socio-demographics * Volume B' (BP) : Trends of EU/ socio-demographics * Volume C: Country/socio-demographics ---- Researchers may also contact GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences: [https://www.gesis.org/eurobarometer](https://www.gesis.org/eurobarometer)