Consumer Interest in Automation: Change Over One Year

Automated vehicles may be the most disruptive innovation poised to transform the global mobility landscape. With trillions of dollars of market potential, a range of new age tech and traditional automotive stakeholders are racing to develop and manufacturer autonomous and semi-autonomous driving technologies. Yet, limited research has captured how interest in these potentially transformative technologies is changing as consumers continue to be exposed to this evolution. This report considers a comparison of online surveys deployed a year apart that gathered information on inclination to use differing levels of automation. The comparison found that recent respondents are less comfortable with fully self-driving vehicles than the sample from one year ago. The change is most notable in respondents under the age of 45. A majority of respondents indicated an unwillingness to purchase a self-driving vehicle, citing trust, including fear of malfunction, safety concerns, and difficulty programming software that is reliable 100% of the time, as a major concern. If automation technology is to be widely accepted and successfully commercialized, new investments are needed in the ‘soft side’ of high tech to address growing consumer hesitance with automated and autonomous automotive technology.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AND10 Standing Committee on Vehicle User Characteristics.
• Authors:
  • Abraham, Hillary
  • Reimer, Bryan
  • Seppelt, Bobbie
  • Fitzgerald, Craig
  • Mehler, Bruce
  • Coughlin, Joseph F
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 17p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attitudes; Autonomous land vehicles; Consumer preferences; Driving; Intelligent vehicles; Technological innovations; Vehicle safety
• Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01658974
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-02666
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 5 2018 11:26AM