The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently conducted a nationwide survey of more than 1,000 drivers, quizzing them on their feelings toward partial and fully automated driving features. The survey showed found that while consumer interest in active safety technologies is strong, motorists prefer partially automated driving features that require them to stay engaged in driving, as opposed to automated features that handle more of the driving task.
IIHS researchers found that hands-on lane centering and automated lane changing systems, which require the user’s hands to be on the steering wheel at all times, were preferred to hands-free systems. Drivers also prefer semi-automated driving systems that require them to initiate a lane change, like the latest version of Super Cruise for example, as opposed to systems that will automatically decide when it’s appropriate to make a lane change.
The survey also showed a high level of acceptance of several types of driver monitoring systems. The majority of drivers said they would be comfortable with sensors on their vehicle’s steering wheel, a camera tracking what they are doing with their hands, or a camera aimed at their face tracking where they are looking. This is important, as the IIHS describes driver monitoring systems as a “fundamental component” of its safety ratings for partial automation systems like Super Cruise – a technology that’s highly rated by the IIHS.
More than half the surveyed drivers said they would be at least somewhat likely to purchase a vehicle with some form of automated lane changing if the price was not an issue. Among those who expressed a preference for either driver-initiated or vehicle-initiated automated lane changing, most said they would want a hands-on version, including many who preferred hands-free lane centering. This appears to indicate many drivers are not comfortable with hands-free, fully automated lane changes at this time.
“It may come as a surprise to some people, but it appears that partially automated features that require the driver’s hands to be on the wheel are actually closer to one-size-fits-all than hands-free designs,” concluded survey designer Alexandra Mueller.
This information could be useful for automakers developing semi- or fully-automated systems, as it serves as an indication many consumers do not want to take their hands off the wheel when driving.
GM is currently developing an even more advanced version of its Super Cruise system called Ultra Cruise that will be capable of operating in fully-autonomous, hands-free mode across 95 percent of all driving scenarios. Based on this study, GM may be smart to integrate semi-automated functions into the system, allowing the user to initiate their own lane changes and other maneuvers to help put them at ease.
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Comments
So many will not allow the autonomous system to change lanes by itself. But they have not been in a real autonomous vehicle yet. Those who have tested the Cruise AV in San Francisco choose the opposite, and accept the AV to change lanes by itself.
More demostrational AV drives will prove the IIHS survey wrong.
Agreed Craig. I want me to be doing the driving and making the decisions.
Keep it all, I want none of it! I prefer to drive myself.
If I wanted to be a passenger, I would call a taxi…
Really? Take a taxi from New York to Los Angeles and enjoy the ride into bankruptcy. Soon Ultra drive gets you there practically for free.
I recently left the trucking industry after 32 years & I’ve seen a number of things that started out in the trucking industry first (aka: guinea pigs). In relation to this article, trucking companies started “experimenting” with on board computers & GPS a little over 30 years ago. Today, every commercial truck is required by law to have an electronic GPS tracking logging system. Anytime something comes into question, such as an accident, the first thing the police & lawyers ask to see is your electronic logs. These things not only track your location, but they monitor your speed & how long you drove at that speed, when & how hard you applied the brakes, if at all, if your seatbelt was fastened & if you are one of the few commercial vehicles that still have standard transmissions, it not only knows what RPM’s you shifted at, it even knows if you scratched (ground) a gear & what gear it was. The DOT can even go back & write you a ticket for speeding in the last 6 MONTHS if they audit you, which they are allowed to do at anytime.
Many, many companies have started putting cameras all over the outside of their trucks, which I have no problem with because of shady lawyers. But many of them are putting cameras inside the trucks to monitor the drivers. That is where it goes to far for me. My company told me that the camera that they chose to use would only record 10 sec before & 30 sec after a “triggered” incident, like a crash. Well it’s obviously recording constantly in order for it to record 10 sec before an incident triggers it to. It may not be saving it, but it’s clearly watching. We were told that they couldn’t just turn on the camera and look at us any time they wanted to, only when an incident triggers it. Then they started writing people up for not wearing a seat belt in the company parking lot & they would attach a picture of you. You can’t go fast enough in an 18-wheeler in a parking lot to set those cameras off. In other words, they lied to us & they could turn those cameras on anytime that they wanted to. I said all that to say this; I’ve said for a while now that all of this will be coming to everyday citizens in the not to distant future. All of this started out as an “experiment”, 30 years later, it’s now LAW. Look at how many insurance companies now have different types of ways to monitor your driving (Progressive, Allstate, State Farm, etc.). It’s voluntary at the moment, and I pray that I’m wrong, but it’ll be mandatory sooner or later. That’s how the Feds sold it to the trucking companies. We need volunteers to experiment in the name of SAFETY. No, they need volunteers to help perfect their Big Brother is watching you plans. You can call me crazy, conspiracy theorist, whatever, I don’t care, but it’s coming. It’s coming & if you’re letting the insurance companies monitor you, then you’re helping them. Btw, the insurance companies are freely giving this information to the govt. I read just 2 weeks ago that General Motors is releasing all of their OnStar data to the feds. The writing is on the wall folks. Read it & pay attention.