Trends in U.S. Drivers’ Perceptions and Attitudes Toward Vehicle Automation, 2019–2025
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Summary
This research brief examines national trends in U.S. drivers’ perceptions, attitudes, and adoption preferences regarding vehicle automation from 2019 to 2025. The study aims to understand how public sentiment toward automated driving systems (ADS) and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) has evolved, identifying barriers to adoption that could inform future technology development and traffic safety initiatives. The analysis utilized data from the Traffic Safety Culture Index (TSCI), a nationally representative annual survey conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. The sample included licensed drivers aged 16 and older, recruited via probability-based methods and weighted to reflect the U.S. population. Respondents viewed educational videos defining automation levels (Level 0 through Level 5) before answering questions on adoption preferences, perceived safety, trust, concerns, and comfort with Level 5 transportation modes. Survey-weighted logistic regression models tested for statistically significant temporal trends. Results indicate a clear shift in preference toward moderate automation. Drivers increasingly favored Level 2 technology (steering and acceleration control with driver oversight), with adoption preferences for Level 2 rising significantly over time. Conversely, trust and perceived safety for higher automation levels (Level 4 and 5) declined. Among a subset of respondents who answered in both 2019/2020 and 2024/2025, preferences converged toward Level 2; those initially preferring no automation moved up, while those preferring full automation moved down. Malfunction was the most frequent concern across all levels, with Level 5 generating the highest anxiety regarding hacking, data privacy, and cost. Additionally, comfort with Level 5 automation increased only for subways and trains, while declining for robotaxis, buses, and private vehicles. The findings suggest that while public acceptance of assistive technologies like Level 2 ADAS is growing, skepticism remains high for fully autonomous systems. This hesitation likely stems from early-stage development issues and media coverage of robotaxi incidents. The authors conclude that understanding these behavioral patterns and knowledge gaps is critical for designing technologies that promote proper use and enhance safety. Future research will focus on more granular assessments of specific ADAS features and current ADS deployments to better address adoption barriers.
Key finding
U.S. drivers increasingly preferred and trusted Level 2 vehicle automation while expressing declining comfort with Level 5 automation in most transportation modes, with malfunction cited as the primary concern across all levels.
Methodology
survey
Sample size: 14910
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_aaa_foundation on 2026-05-23 (5 acquisition events logged).
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | aaa_foundation | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-23 |
| archive | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| chunk | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| embed | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-02 |
| enrich | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 18 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
Topics
Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.
- acceptance adoption
- trust calibration
- automation
- automation surprise
- driverless ads
- situational awareness
Information type
What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).
- Empirical Findings: self report data, observational prevalence
- Theoretical Contribution: conceptual framework