Skip to main content

Motorists prefer 'no self-driving capability’, says survey

The latest report by Brandon Schoettle and Michael Sivak, Sustainable Worldwide Transportation at the University of Michigan, builds on their recent series of eight reports addressing public opinion, human factors, and safety-related issues concerning self-driving vehicles. An identical survey to that used in 2015 was administered. The survey was developed to examine motorists’ preferences among levels of vehicle automation, including preferences for interacting with and overall concern about riding in s
May 24, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The latest report by Brandon Schoettle and Michael Sivak, Sustainable Worldwide Transportation at the University of Michigan, builds on their recent series of eight reports addressing public opinion, human factors, and safety-related issues concerning self-driving vehicles. An identical survey to that used in 2015 was administered.

The survey was developed to examine motorists’ preferences among levels of vehicle automation, including preferences for interacting with and overall concern about riding in self-driving vehicles. Completed responses were received from 618 licensed drivers in the US.

The main findings include: The most frequent preference for vehicle automation continues to be for no self-driving capability, followed by partially self-driving vehicles, with completely self-driving vehicles being the least preferred choice;  Concern for riding in self-driving vehicles remains higher for completely self-driving vehicles than for partially self-driving vehicles; Respondents still overwhelmingly want to be able to manually control completely self-driving vehicles when desired; Preferences were generally divided between touch-screens or voice commands to input route or destination information for completely self-driving vehicles; Most respondents prefer to be notified of the need to take control of a partially self-driving vehicle with a combination of sound, vibration, and visual warnings.

The authors say that overall public opinion has been remarkably consistent over the two years that this survey has been conducted. The general patterns of responses have not changed over the course of these two surveys, despite the increased media coverage of self-driving vehicles.

Related Content

  • Minimising the problems of construction disputes
    September 30, 2013
    *Nigel Grout discusses methods for minimising the risk of potential legal issues in construction projects Disputes and the construction industry are synonymous with each other. In a climate of economic downturn, the prevalence of major disputes will continue to be high as parties are unwilling or not able to compromise to reach a settlement. According to the latest ‘Global Construction Disputes’ report by EC Harris, the global average value of a construction dispute in 2012 was nearly US$32 million.
  • The road to climate change mitigation starts at Highways UK
    February 17, 2020
    David Arminas explored climate change innovation on display at Highways UK in Birmingham, England
  • Innovation in road design and management software
    February 17, 2012
    The emphasis on data processing and re-use, continues to grow in the development of design and management software. The interoperability of software, the need to handle and process larger amounts of data, and re-use and retention of data sets from one task to another have been a growing emphasis in the past few years. It allows infrastructure companies to get better value from expensively collected information and to focus more on the whole life cycle of projects.
  • Getting to the heart of road noise - to eliminate disturbance
    May 20, 2016
    Traffic noise is a widespread nuisance that can impact where and how we choose to live, property prices and our quality of life. Better planning and use of mitigation factors can make a significant difference Traffic is one of the top five sources of nuisance noise – along with industry, construction, sport and leisure and general neighbourhood noise. Road traffic is also one of the most diverse sources of noise. You know where it’s going to come from, but less often what the noise will be as the volu