Driverless cars could have to make life-and-death decisions that more than a third of drivers would prefer not to think about until they happen.

A survey has revealed that more than half (59 per cent) of Brits think that if they were the passenger in a fully autonomous vehicle, and it had no choice but to crash, it should put them at risk if the alternatives risked more lives.

A Populous poll commissioned by The AA, and carried out among more than 21,000 people in the UK, also found that more people were willing to put themselves at risk of death if they were the passenger, as opposed to a generic ‘passenger’ travelling in the car (54 per cent), while one in 20 felt the vehicle should hit someone else.

Respondents had the option to select a collision involving two children who had run into the road, or with two elderly pedestrians walking on the pavement.

Highlighting the difficulty software developers will have over these decisions, many people felt they were unable to determine what action the car should take – at 40 per cent and 34 per cent respectively.

The reaction times of autonomous vehicles - helped by sensors, cameras and radar systems - are likely to be faster than those of a human driver. An autonomous vehicle is also more likely to travel within the speed limit.

The question was asked in the context of the ongoing consultation by the Law Commission into automated vehicles.

Edmund King, AA president, commented: “The driverless dilemma is a common question for programmers of autonomous vehicles, but the number of people who avoided giving a definitive answer shows this is a difficult ‘live or let die’ dilemma.

“Drivers and pedestrians will want to know that fully autonomous vehicles have been rigorously tested to ensure fatalities are prevented and scenarios like these are avoided,” he added.

Last April, a self-driving test car from Uber Technologies hit and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona, a state promoting itself as a testbed for such technology. It was the first such fatality involving an autonomous test vehicle and a pedestrian.

As expected, the crash has provoked a response from consumer-safety advocates and will likely lead to closer regulatory scrutiny. Jason Levine, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, was quoted as saying that the accident will set consumer confidence in the technology “back years if not decades”.

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