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

  • Stiffer road surfaces could save billions in fuel say US researchers
    February 27, 2014
    There are fears that President Barack Obama is overlooking the benefits of good highway design following his recent announcement that he plans to impose higher fuel efficiency standards for medium and heavy-duty trucks by 2016.
  • Drink drive law enforcement yields results in Europe
    August 19, 2015
    Many drivers in Europe will be wishing they had been more careful following the results of a Pan-European police crackdown on drink driving. The European TISPOL police body carried out an enforcement campaign in June 2015 that resulted in 17,006 drink-drive offences being detected from 1,124,163 roadside breath tests. Motorists in 28 European countries were also checked for drugs, and 2,764 offences were detected. The results equate to approximately one offence in every 65 driver breathalysed and give cause
  • Drink drive law enforcement yields results in Europe
    August 19, 2015
    Many drivers in Europe will be wishing they had been more careful following the results of a Pan-European police crackdown on drink driving. The European TISPOL police body carried out an enforcement campaign in June 2015 that resulted in 17,006 drink-drive offences being detected from 1,124,163 roadside breath tests. Motorists in 28 European countries were also checked for drugs, and 2,764 offences were detected. The results equate to approximately one offence in every 65 driver breathalysed and give cause
  • The hands-free debate is just one side of driver distraction
    August 13, 2019
    A debate about hands-free and hand-held phone use is welcome, but if we want to improve road safety and stop killing people it misses the point, explains Shaun Helman, TRL's chief scientist The Transport Committee’s report on driving and mobile phones is to be welcomed, for focusing attention on a pressing and growing road safety issue. As someone who provided evidence to the committee, I don’t need convincing that the use of a mobile device while controlling a vehicle is something that must be considered