The autonomous vehicle space offers significant potential for businesses from car companies to software and hardware manufacturers to lidar developers to camera makers and far beyond. But as an industry, autonomy is also faced with a major hurdle in the way of widespread adoption: mistrust.

Trust is synonymous with safety in the industry. According to an April 2019 Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll, half of U.S. adults think automated vehicles are more dangerous than traditional vehicles operated by people, while nearly two-thirds said they would not buy a fully autonomous vehicle. Around 63 percent of respondents said they would not pay more to have a self-driving feature on their vehicle, and 41 percent of the rest said they would not pay more than $2,000. Yet, experts still project autonomous vehicles to be a potential $65.3 billion industry by 2027 (Market Research Future), including the ecosystem of solutions that support bringing driverless vehicles to market.

In a TEDxHousesOfParliment talk by philosopher Baroness Onora O’Neil called “What we don’t understand about trust,” O’Neil encourages us to be aware of the difference between trust and trustworthiness. “We need to think much less about trust, let alone about attitudes of trust detected or mis-detected by opinion polls, much more about being trustworthy, and how you give people adequate, useful and simple evidence that you’re trustworthy.”

Not only is marketing your autonomous product or service about standing out in a crowded industry, touting anything autonomous begins with establishing trust. Presenting your company, product, or service in an accurate, authentic way, from compete messaging to content development to the way you solicit and listen to feedback, will help propel you to the front of the pack…and stay there.

Read our latest eGuide to discover five ways to exhibit trust while building awareness about, growing leads for, and contributing to the bottom line of your offering for self-driving vehicles.