At least one car manufacturer fears human drivers will bully level 2 self-driving cars, so its level 3 real-world trial cars look identical to conventional models.

True if a report from before 12 January 2017 shows that at least one carmaker expressed fear that human drivers would bully self-driving cars, and that this concern led it to make its autonomous trial cars look identical to conventional models. Mostly true if this holds but a detail differs, for example the autonomy level of the trial cars (level 2 versus level 3) is mixed up. Mixed if the bullying fear is documented but the identical-appearance decision is not, or the other way round. Mostly false if the fear was voiced by someone other than a manufacturer, such as researchers or a survey, and the claim distorts this. False if no carmaker expressed such a concern or took such a step.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Volvo Fears Human Drivers Will Bully Driverless Cars Discover Magazine · 2 November 2016

   “The Swedish automaker Volvo has a slightly different concern about whether human drivers will try to bully driverless cars on the road. That is why the automaker plans to keep its early fleet of test vehicles in London unmarked so that they don't look any different from a normal Volvo car.”

2. E2 Volvo Fears Human Drivers Will Bully Driverless Cars Discover Magazine · 2 November 2016

   “I’m pretty sure that people will challenge them if they are marked by doing really harsh braking in front of a self-driving car or putting themselves in the way,”

A Discover Magazine report from 2 November 2016 [E1] says Volvo was concerned that human drivers would bully driverless cars. It also says this is why Volvo planned to leave its early London test fleet unmarked, so the cars would look like normal Volvos. The report [E2] quotes the view that people would challenge marked self-driving cars, for example by braking hard in front of them. Both the carmaker's fear and its choice to keep the cars looking identical are documented before the claim date. The evidence does not give the autonomy level of the cars concerned, so the claim's 'level two' and 'level 3' details cannot be confirmed. That detail is not confirmed by the evidence, which makes the verdict mostly true rather than fully true.