Americans are increasingly aware of automated, self-driving vehicles, but they’re also increasingly wary of them, a study released Thursday shows.
While understanding the technology and capabilities of AVs among U.S. consumers has increased to 58% from 43% in 2024, that understanding is not translating into trusting them, according to the JD Power 2026 U.S. Mobility Confidence Index (MCI) Study.SM conducted in collaboration with the MIT Advanced Vehicle Technology (AVT) Consortium.
Indeed, fewer than one-in-four of the 2,898 consumers age 18 and over responding to the online survey in April said they would be “comfortable” riding in a fully self-driving vehicle.
That hesitation to ride in an AV, however, is highly dependent on the specific situation, the study found.
More than half, 54%, said they would have greater confidence in lower-risk, predictable scenarios such as food pickup, compared with just 31% for transporting children, revealing how higher risk leads to lower trust.
The key to boosting confidence in full self-driving vehicles even in the face of perceived risk depends on “proven safety, real-world performance and clear consumer value,” said Lisa Boor, director of auto benchmarking and mobility development at JD Power, in a statement.
“Consumers need to see that these systems can respond to unexpected situations, perform reliably in real-world conditions and clearly communicate what they are doing. Without that, broader adoption will remain limited,” she added.
It’s a head-scratching situation, illustrated by the organizations’ Mobility Confidence Index, which measures consumer comfort with fully automated self-driving vehicles and purchase intent.
On the index’s 100-point scale, consumer comfort has barely moved in that past three years, coming in at 37 in 2023 and holding steady at 39 in 2024 and 2026.
The issues stifling any boost in consumer comfort with AVs are clear, according to the study.
Personal safety was cited by 60% of consumers, followed by 58% concerned about emergency handling just over half, 51%, calling out performance in challenging conditions such as bad weather and heavy traffic.
In keeping with those concerns, not many of those responding to the survey said they would find much, or any, value in AVs.
Just under a third, 30%, said automated vehicles would not be valuable at any point in their lives.
But among those who said they would see at least some value in self-driving vehicles, 24% to 28% across demographic groups said they might be useful when they reach retirement age.
A quarter said AVs could be helpful in certain situations such as transportation to and from medical appointments or if they had some mobility limitations.
Respondents seemed to be of two minds regarding the increasing use of self-driving commercial trucks that move cargo or make deliveries.
While “comfort” with goods being transported by self-driving trucks scored 46 points on the index, what the organizations termed the “highest scoring attribute” in the study, the majority are still suspicious of their safety.
Only 16% said they would be comfortable sharing the road with fully automated self-driving semi-trucks and 43% of believe they are less safe than human-driven semi-trucks.
What’s the key to boosting consumer confidence in fully automated self-driving vehicles?
“Automated vehicles need more than engineering progress, larger pilots or public education. They need a trusted ecosystem built on transparent performance data, governance guardrails and clear accountability,” asserted Bryan Reimer, Ph.D., research scientist in the AgeLab at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, in a statement.
“As cities and states consider deployment, moving deliberately, setting clear conditions and scaling only where evidence supports confidence may be the best path to durable public acceptance, political support and responsible growth,” Reimer said.