Intel, LeBron James team up to build trust in autonomous cars

Intel Corp. is airing its first commercial for a digital ad campaign for autonomous cars, featuring Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James.

The upcoming campaign, "Driving Trust," is meant to lessen apprehension of autonomous cars and instill trust in consumers. The commercial will lead up to the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Boston Celtics opener set for Oct. 17.

"The campaign is part of a multi-pronged trust initiative, which includes research and development to build better human-machine interfaces, extensive garage lab testing and studies that explore people's feelings and attitudes towards self-driving cars," the company said in a statement.

The commercial opens with James striding down a dimly lit corridor, as a narrator says, "Some people are fearless." Later on outside, a self-driving sedan arrives for James, but he is reluctant to get inside, a stark contrast to the fearless athleticism promoted at the start of the commercial.

"It sees like 80 times better than you do," a man accompanying James says reassuringly in the commercial. James finally succumbs and gets in the back seat. At the end of the commercial James concludes, "I'm keeping this."

James has been no stranger to automotive advertising. In 2014, he signed a multiyear deal with Kia as its first "luxury ambassador." 

Last month, Intel launched a study with a focus on human-to-machine interfaces of autonomous cars. Despite pre-ride doubts, the participants felt at ease and less afraid of driverless vehicles afterward and acknowledged that "self-driving cars behave better than they do," wrote Kathy Winter, vice president of the automated driving division at Intel, in a statement.

"Society's fear of driverless cars is somewhat baffling to me," said Winter. "Given that car crashes attributable to human error cause more than 1 million [global] vehicle deaths every year, it's those human-driven cars people should be afraid of."