Autonomous cars are just one of the big drivers for consumers' growing interest in Internet of Things services and devices.
Self-driving cars saw the biggest increase in interest this year, according to Deloitte Development LLC 's Global Mobile Consumer Survey. Interest in purchasing a self-driving vehicle was up 50% since last year, with nearly two thirds of the consumers responding saying they'd eventually be willing to consider owning or riding in an autonomous car.
Autonomous cars resonated with a younger demographic, with 16% (nearly double last year's results) of those aged 25 to 34 saying they were ready to give up the ignition keys.
Aside from the increased interest in autonomous cars, the IoT sands shifted a bit from last year to this year, according to the sixth edition of the survey. In last year's survey, there was more interest in self-driven cars and wearables than home-based IoT services and applications. This year, interest in home-based IoT had the largest year-over-year increase, from 53% to 65%, to leapfrog over wearables (62%).
The survey also contained good news for service providers, vendors and IoT integrators. Half of those surveyed said they were willing to pay for home monitoring services while 48% said they would pay for home control, both of which were up by close to 20% from 2015.
Not surprisingly, close to a third of the consumers felt smart energy, smart transportation and smart health care would "make their communities more livable."
Other fun facts from the survey included: In the US, consumers check their smartphones more than 9 billion times per day, which was a 1 billion increase in phone checks per day from 2015. Close to half of those surveyed fired up their phones in the middle of the night. Out of the roughly 100 million people in the US that were looking at their phones in the middle of the night, more than 40 million were checking their social media.
For the first time, 25 to 34 year olds were the leading age demographic in mobile technology usage. This group purchased more smartphones in 2016 than any other age group, and more than 75% of them were waking up at night to check their phones.
When a new day dawns, 66% of the consumers checked their phones within 15 minutes of waking up while 90% do so within an hour.
"This year's survey data confirms that not only is the smartphone the central hub of consumers' everyday lives, but consumers are willing to pay for a range of applications gaining steam in the market such as IoT for the home and car," said Craig Wigginton, vice chairman and telecommunications sector leader at Deloitte & Touche LLP, in a statement.
The survey was based on 53,000 respondents aged 18 to 74 across 31 countries.
— Mike Robuck, Editor, Telco Transformation