New and used vehicle buyers’ awareness, understanding, and trust in advanced driver assistance systems

January 2023

Introduction: There is concern that the effectiveness of crash avoidance systems will decrease or the potential benefits of adaptive cruise control (ACC) will fail to emerge as motor vehicles with the systems age. This is partly based on assumptions that these vehicles will eventually be bought on the used vehicle market, and the experience of buyers who purchase them used will differ from that of the first owners. But there is a lack of research on the topic. The purpose of this study was to compare driver trust, understanding, and awareness of crash avoidance systems and ACC between owners who purchased new versus used vehicles. Method: Consumers who purchased model year 2016-2019 vehicles with standard advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) completed surveys that measured experience with the systems. In our analyses, we controlled for owner age group and gender, the importance that the vehicle they planned to buy had the technologies equipped, and how well they believed the seller explained the technologies. Results: As expected, respondents who purchased new vehicles had consistently more trust, awareness, and understanding of the systems relative to respondents who bought used. Results suggest that the perceived importance of ADAS early in the buying experience and a good explanation of the technology from the seller to the buyer may help reduce these differences. However, knowledge and awareness of ADAS was imperfect among new vehicle buyers, and concerns about the effectiveness and feasibility of training underscores the importance of improving understanding and use through system design. Conclusion: The significant association between increased trust in the systems and understanding and awareness of the technology, regardless of type of purchase, suggests that efforts to confer knowledge of ADAS early in the ownership experience will be beneficial to both groups of buyers.