Driverless cars may not be here yet, but people are already open to the idea of riding in one, according to a survey by the World Economics Forum.
The WEF conducted a global survey on how people feel about driverless cars and found that 58% of respondents would take a ride in a fully driverless car. Hitting nearly 60% is a big deal, considering it could take some adjustment for people to feel comfortable relinquishing control of the wheel.
But perhaps the most interesting part of the survey is why people are ready for driverless cars. The number one reason people want driverless cars has nothing to do with driving at all, but parking — 43.5% of survey respondents said the main reason they want driverless cars is so the car can find a parking spot and park itself.
From there, 39% of participants said they wanted a driverless car so they could multi-task on the way to their destination, and 35% want to use the self-driving mode during traffic.
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"To my surprise, the number 1 reason was about ease of parking, which I personally wasn’t expecting," John Moavenzadeh, head of mobility industries for the WEF, told Tech Insider. "But the automobile is part of this broader system and we have to put ourselves in the shoes of the users to understand the painpoints."
Self-parking is a feature that has been around from as early as 2006, as can be seen by a Lexus LS460 commercial from that year.
And by 2012, several automakers were developing self-parking technology. Ford and Mercedes are just two of seven automakers that USA Today reached out to for a self-parking face off in 2012.
Interestingly enough, the feature wasn't too popular then, as Toyota declined to send a car for testing because it didn't "believe there's much interest in the feature," according to the USA Today article. The article also noted that Lexus introduced auto-parking in the U.S. on its 2007 LS big sedan but discontinued it after finding it was too cumbersome to use.
That very well could be because the technology wasn't there yet to make self-parking as seamless as it is today. Automakers are still pushing self-parking features. Tesla's Autopilot gives the car the ability to self-parallel park and pull into spaces. The BMW 7-Series is also capable of parking itself without a driver.
It's worth noting the survey also said people were interested in the cars finding a spot too, which is a feature many cars makers are beginning to include in newer vehicles.
