We have a promising future in improving road safety, which requires a comprehensive assessment of the impact of systems on road transport. Research is timely as we are in a transitional period until the advent of autonomous vehicles. This research has identified the factors that influence the impact of vehicle control algorithms on road transport, depending on technological feasibility, as well as the factors that influence development directions, and then used a questionnaire survey to assess the factors that are most important to society. The correlations between the impacts were analysed and, after identifying the different clusters, this research assessed the opinions of different age groups on the expected impact of self-driving vehicles and the factors influencing their introduction.