Are we Germans good drivers? A good two thirds are convinced of this. The proportion is even higher among Americans, Japanese are less convinced of themselves.
In its current mobility study, the automotive supplier Continental compares basic attitudes to driving in Germany, Japan, the USA and China. The results reveal clear differences in mentality between nations. And between 2013 and 2018 they were partly also subject to a major change.
The differences in self-assessment of driving skills are interesting. 83 percent of the Americans surveyed consider themselves to be very good drivers, while Chinese and Germans consider themselves to be 69 and 66 percent as such. In the Japanese, however, the proportion was only 25 percent. This not only has something to do with a fundamental mentality of the Japanese, but is also subject to change, because 2013 still believed that 53 percent of the Japanese were very good drivers. The Chinese, on the other hand, saw an increase in the same period, because 2013 only rate 60 percent as very good.
An astonishing development is the growing fun that the Chinese are developing when driving a car: If 2013 still affirmed 48 percent, five years later it was 69 percent. For the Japanese, however, the joy of driving decreased from 57 to 43 percent over the same period. For Americans and Germans, the positive attitude between 2013 and 2018 stagnated at around the same level with around two thirds each.
There were major differences in the assessment of whether cities could be banned from driving in the near future. 44 percent of Germans and even 55 percent of Chinese expect such measures. For the Americans (20%) and the Japanese (8%) only a small part seems to expect such a development.
There are also major differences with regard to belief in progress. Meanwhile, 89 percent of Chinese people believe that automated driving will bring them benefits. 68 percent of those surveyed assume that the Japanese, 53 and the Americans 50 percent. Three-quarters of Chinese also expect automated driving in 5 to 10 years to be part of everyday life, while in Japan, the share in 58, the Americans at 52 and the Germans at only 40 percent.