Consumer interest builds for 'gateway' automated vehicle technologies, says study

Trust in automation technology is very much age dependent, as younger consumers have a notably higher level of confidence in the technology than their older counterparts, according to the J.D. Power 2016 US Tech Choice Study, which says trust in automation technology is a critical step toward the future of automated vehicles. The study was conducted in February through March 2016 and is based on an online survey of more than 7,900 consumers who purchased/leased a new vehicle in the past five years.
April 29, 2016 Read time: 2 mins

Trust in automation technology is very much age dependent, as younger consumers have a notably higher level of confidence in the technology than their older counterparts, according to the J.D. Power 2016 US Tech Choice Study, which says trust in automation technology is a critical step toward the future of automated vehicles.

The study was conducted in February through March 2016 and is based on an online survey of more than 7,900 consumers who purchased/leased a new vehicle in the past five years.

The study finds that customers are most interested in a number of automotive technology features that make use of the underpinnings of fully automated vehicles, such as radar, sensors, light detection and ranging (LIDAR) and cameras. Features with high consumer interest include smart headlights, night vision, lane change assist, traffic jam assist, medical emergency stop, smart intersection and predictive vehicle control.  

However, when it comes to making the leap to fully automated cars, trust in the technology is directly linked to the age of the consumer. More than half of Gen Y (born 1977-1994) and Gen Z (1995-2000) vehicle owners say they trust self-driving technology, compared with 41 per cent of Gen X (1965-1976), 23 per cent of Baby Boomers (1946-1964) and 18 per cent of Pre-Boomers (born before 1946).

The one view all generations share is a concern for technology security, specifically surrounding privacy and the potential for systems to be hacked, hijacked or to crash (either the vehicle or the system itself).

"The level of trust is directly linked to the level of interest in a new technology among automobile buyers," said Kristin Kolodge, executive director of driver interaction and HMI research at J.D. Power. "Acceptance can be increased with exposure over time and experience with automated technologies. But trust is fragile and can be broken if there is an excessive number of incidents with automated vehicles."

Location Based Systems

Related Content

  • Most Americans would support higher gas taxes - under certain conditions
    September 3, 2015
    A telephone survey by the California-based Mineta Transportation Institute found that the majority of Americans would support higher fuel taxes, but only if the revenue is invested in specific transportation improvements. A gas fuel increase of 10 cents per gallon to improve road maintenance was supported by 71 per cent of respondents, whereas support levels dropped to just 31 per cent if the revenues were to be used more generally to maintain and improve the transportation system. The survey findings
    Read More
  • Guidelines on cyber security for connected and automated vehicles ‘doesn’t go far enough’
    August 8, 2017
    David Barzilai, chairman and co-founder of automotive cyber-security firm, Karamba Security, has applauded the UK government for taking pre-emptive action and zeroing in on preventing cyber-attacks as critical for the adoption of self-driving cars on a mass scale. However, he says the guidelines don’t go far enough toward effectively preventing car hacking, saying cars are not servers or mobile phones that can sustain the risk of hidden security bugs. The time it takes to remediate such bugs in production,
    Read More
  • Truck platooning: the evidence is complex
    February 6, 2020
    A number of claims are made for the value of truck platooning. David Crawford looks at the figures from a new set of examples which suggest that the situation is more complex than you might think
    Read More
  • Vehicle data translator for road weather monitoring
    February 1, 2012
    Sheldon Drobot, Michael Chapman and Amanda Anderson, NCAR, and Paul Pisano, FHWA, detail latest results of testing of a vehicle data translator for road weather monitoring and information applications. The use of vehicle sensor data to improve weather and road condition products, envisioned as part of the US Department of Transportation Research and Innovative Technology Administration's (RITA's) IntelliDriveSM initiative, could revolutionise the provision of road weather information to transportation syste
    Read More

Highlighted Content