Would You Trust a Self-Driving Car? ft. Greg Brannon of AAA

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Now in the middle of one of the most significant eras in automotive, Carl Anthony amplifies the minds and voices behind this historic transformation as the host of AutoVision News Radio.

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Mic check one two.

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All while coming to terms with middle age, father loss, and what it means to be successful in Detroit.

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Allow me to tell you about an exciting new car. The exterior, stylish, sleek, the interior refined, luxurious. There's a panoramic roof, a premium stereo, and a powertrain that sends you to 60 miles per hour in the blink of an eye. It also drives itself. No hands on the steering wheel, no feet on the pedals, Fully self driving.

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Do you trust such a car? According to an annual survey conducted by AAA since 02/2016, the answer for most Americans to that question is no. AAA's survey gauges public sentiment around self driving cars. And while there have been some fluctuations in the findings from year to year, overall, it appears most Americans have and still maintain a healthy skepticism of fully autonomous vehicles. AAA's annual survey also examines public sentiment around ADAS technologies.

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Different than full self driving cars, survey respondents in the past have expressed an interest in ADAS features. In fact, AAA's annual survey has shown that consumers have been gradually warming up to ADAS technology on a car they can operate versus full self driving technology on a car they don't or cannot operate. For automakers reading between the lines, there is evidence here to suggest that what consumers really want are improvements to existing ADAS features. And the better those ADAS features perform in the real world, the higher the trust level in those systems, and perhaps the greater the trust in that particular vehicle make and model. Greg Brannan, director of automotive engineering for triple a, joins us to share insight into the findings of the 2025 study in which only 13% said they would trust riding in a self driving vehicle.

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Greg oversees all automotive research and testing for AAA, which is 65,000,000 members strong at the time of this broadcast. Greg holds an MBA from the University of Central Florida and is a certified ASE master technician. His areas of expertise include electric and autonomous vehicles, ADAS technology, automotive batteries, and fuels. Greg serves as a student mentor and is on the board of the foundation for Seminole County Public Schools. Like many enthusiasts, he enjoys building, restoring, and racing cars in his spare time.

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As we begin with Greg, he provides additional context on why AAA continues to conduct its annual study on the relationship between consumers and self driving vehicles.

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Moving at the speed of mobility, this is Autovision News Radio with Karl Anthony in Detroit, Michigan. The inspiration for the autonomous vehicle study that AAA has been conducting for almost a decade now was really to get a understanding of exactly how consumers feel about this emerging technology. We do see that the percentage of people that will trust to an automated vehicle to drive itself while they're in it has rebounded slightly from some of the numbers that we've seen the last couple of years and and sort of rebounded to where we were back in 2022. This is likely related to the news cycle and things that we're seeing, you know, in the news about automated vehicles, both positive and negative. And so it's really important to have a grasp on the consumer perception of this technology because eventually, we will need more and more consumers to buy into and participate in, you know, riding in autonomous vehicles.

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And I think ten years ago, we felt like this was probably a couple years out. Now, I think there's still some question about that. But regardless, the consumers need to be brought along on this journey.

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AAA's twenty twenty five autonomous vehicle survey was conducted in January, using a probability based panel designed to be representative of the overall US household population. Among survey participants for 2025, '60 '1 percent said they would be afraid to ride in a self driving car. Only 13% said they would trust taking a ride in a fully autonomous vehicle, while the remaining 26% were unsure how they felt about the idea. The 2025 findings are in line with previous years. For example, when AAA conducted this study in 2024, '60 '6 percent said they feared the thought of taking a ride in a self driving car, while only 9% said they would trust doing so.

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In 2023, '60 '8 percent said they were afraid with only 9% again saying they would trust a self driving car. In an article published by Medical News Today, fear of the unknown is defined as the anxiety around unpredictable situations or events. It can be triggered by things that people might find unfamiliar or strange, such as the idea of a car without a driver. Individuals can also experience fear of the unknown when there is a lack of information. As it does each year, triple a's twenty twenty five survey is looking at the public's perception of self driving cars.

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The sixty one percent who said they were fearful at the suggestion of riding in an autonomous vehicle may be experiencing this anxiety of the unknown, which can be accentuated by limited information about the technology that would give a vehicle the ability to drive itself.

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This is likely the loss of control that people feel whenever they're riding in in something and there's no driver to talk to or ability to intervene with, you know, with the technology. It's much the same as people have fears for riding in a plane. It's one of those things that loss of control is really challenging for a lot of people. And you know, the other aspect of it is that most Americans have not had a chance to ride in a fully soft driving car. And you know, maybe only a few would would take up the opportunity if given it.

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It's really that exposure, that lack of understanding and the lack of experience. We have to then only rely on your perception of it and I think the first thing that comes to mind for people is that loss of control.

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While fear of self driving cars persist, it's a different story for ADAS. In AAA's twenty twenty five survey, sixty four percent said they would definitely or probably want automatic emergency braking on their next vehicle, While 59% said they want a lane keeping assist function. Another 55% said they are interested in having adaptive cruise control on their next vehicle.

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The reason for this is likely that they can see the immediate benefit of the ADAS or advanced driver assistance systems, whereas the benefit of a fully self driving vehicle might be a little less clear to those people responding to the survey. Also, the advanced driver assistance systems simply aid the driver in the operation of the car as opposed to replacing the driver, so we don't have the same fears around turning over controls to the machine.

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When AAA conducted this same survey in 2021 and 2022, '1 of the key findings was that the car buying public wanted automakers to shift their focus. Rather than develop self driving cars, respondents would like to see OEMs improve the performance of existing driver support features. As noted in these prior triple a studies, the interesting thing is that improving ADAS functionality may open the door for more widespread public acceptance of autonomous vehicles. If more buyers have a positive experience with the ADAS technologies in their personal cars and have access to correct information about what those systems can and cannot do, it may eventually lead to higher trust levels when a fully autonomous car is in the picture for those same consumers. In the 2025 survey, the findings on ADAS improvement mirror what triple a has found in the more recent past.

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For example, 78% said they want OEMs to prioritize safety system advancements as they develop and manufacture new models. This was a stark contrast to vehicle styling as only 24% deemed that as important And only 13% said automakers should prioritize autonomous cars.

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Automakers have the opportunity to continue to refine the higher levels of advanced driver assistance systems like active driving sis assistance or the combination of lane centering and adaptive cruise functionality often termed under these marketing names like Super Cruise, Blue Cruise, Autopilot. The functionality here, it as it stands today, is not very confidence inspiring for most drivers. And if they have these systems in their car, they're probably skeptical about the ability for the vehicle to completely drive itself without their supervision. And so, it's actually a pretty big leap from these level two driver assistance systems to a fully automated system. Both in terms of the algorithms behind, you know, the the scenes as well as the hardware in the car.

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So doing a good job with these advanced driver assistance systems, minimizing the false warnings, working as effectively as possible is critical to get people on board with the idea that the car is ready to drive itself.

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Along with ADAS features in their personal vehicles, robo taxis may also help alleviate someone's fear of a fully self driving car. However, our exposure to robo taxis, at least so far, will vary by location. That is to say robo taxis are not ubiquitous or at least not yet. Triple a's twenty twenty five survey found that seventy four percent were aware of robo taxis, although fifty three percent said they would not choose to ride in one. These findings were important to triple a researchers because they provide a more in-depth understanding of how consumers perceive and interact with robotaxis.

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So while these pilots have started slow, they are expanding in some major markets like Los Angeles and San Francisco, Phoenix and other places. And so people are becoming more and more aware of the existence of these type of technologies and that may help ease some of the fears because you can no longer wonder how it might be implemented, but are actually seeing it in the field today.

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Software defined vehicles or SDVs for short, is the one term many of us in this industry have committed to the top of our automotive lexicons. Research from triple a indicates that consumers will appreciate the tech and convenience features of an SDV, but there has to be a healthy equilibrium, if you will, between what might be considered futuristic and what drivers are already familiar with.

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One thing that we consistently hear from consumers is they want to make sure that cars are easy to drive, Their phone is easy to pair. That's one of the biggest complaints that we get from drivers. And that the the controls are simple to use. I think there's going to be a balance as we go forward between, you know, more futuristic state of a a fully integrated touch screen and no buttons or dials on the car to consumers really longing for a balance between that and the ease of use of a button, let's say, to adjust the air conditioning setting. So these software defined vehicles, I I think they do have a place and people definitely want the convenience technologies in the car but they wanna balance it with the convenience of driving and features that they're accustomed to today.

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Most new vehicles are standard with a suite of ADAS features and some trim levels may even have available packages that include other driver assist systems in addition to what comes standard. AAA is one of six organizations advocating a universal naming structure for ADAS. Consumer Reports, JD Power, the National Safety Council, the Partners for Automated Vehicle Education or PAVE, and the SAE have joined AAA in this initiative known as clearing the confusion. The organizations say the names used to describe ADAS features across the industry vary too much, creating confusion for the car buying public. Some ADAS features may have long names, include a string of abbreviated letters or unfamiliar acronyms, and be only partially clear as to what function they perform, when, and how.

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To this end, the organizations maintain an ongoing list of popular ADAS features, but with a standardized nomenclature. Each feature on the list is given a straightforward name with a concise definition of what it does. For example, in the PDF document, the organizations have defined adaptive cruise control, a common ADAS feature, as cruise control that also assists with acceleration and or braking to maintain a driver selected gap to the vehicle in front. Some systems can come to a stop and continue while others cannot. The organizations are asking automakers to adopt this more universal ADAS naming structure and its corresponding descriptions.

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They are not meant to replace an automaker's proprietary system or package name.

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It's important that drivers understand how systems work, whether or not we're talking about a fully automated vehicle or advanced driver assistance systems such as automatic emergency braking or adaptive cruise control. The challenge for consumers is that unfortunately, automakers all implement these systems slightly differently and they all tend to use different naming around the system. So it makes it very challenging for consumers to understand what this technology does clearly. We have worked with a coalition of organizations to create some common sense naming for advanced driver assistance systems and are starting to see some automakers integrate this into the descriptions of these systems for commonality. This will be a really important aspect as we go forward and cars get more and more heavily laden with technology that consumers aren't accustomed to.

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And all the way up to fully self driving vehicles and the the even the naming around what those might be, whether it's an autonomous car, a fully self driving vehicle, you know, an automated shuttle or whatever we're talking about in the space. The consistency in naming is very important, so consumers can begin to understand what it is they're experiencing.

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See the links in the show notes to learn more about AAA's annual study on public sentiment towards self driving vehicles and the clearing the confusion initiative. Auto vision news radio is available on the digital antennas of Spotify, Apple podcast, Podbean, and more. In Detroit, alongside Greg Brannan, I'm Carl Anthony, AutoVision News Radio.