Survey Study of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) Showed 64 Percent of Truck Drivers and 86 Percent of Motor Carrier Executives Held Positive Perceptions of Blind Spot Warning Systems.
Surveys Conducted Among Truck Drivers and Motor Carriers Revealed Improvements in ADAS Awareness and Adoption Rates.
Nationwide, United States
Accelerating the Adoption of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS): “Tech-Celerate Now” Phase 1
Summary Information
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) have the potential of improving traffic safety, including truck safety. However, barriers such as awareness, acceptance, and uncertain Return On Investment (ROI), are known to be limiting the adoption of this technology. This study summarized the findings from Phase 1 of the “Tech-Celerate Now” program, launched by Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in September 2019, to accelerate adoption of ADAS technologies amongst trucking industry associations and consultants. This study documented the research and data analysis as well as awareness activities, program perception and impacts, through a pre- and post-outreach activity survey of motor carrier executives and truck drivers. The Tech-Celerate Now program documented in this study, categorized ADAS technologies into four functional groups:
- ADAS braking systems, including technologies such as automatic emergency braking, and adaptive cruise control systems.
- ADAS steering systems, including lane keep assist, lane centering, and adaptive steering control.
- ADAS warning systems, including lane departure warning (LDW), forward collision warning (FCW), and blind spot warning (BSW).
- ADAS monitoring systems, including driver- and road-facing cameras and camera-based mirror systems.
METHODOLOGY
Outreach activities for the Tech-Celerate Now program included developing articles to be published in trade industry periodicals, presentations at conferences, seminars, and committee meetings, as well as booths at exhibits. Additionally, the research team developed a Tech-Celerate Now flyer to promote branding and promote ADAS adoption and developed a Tech-Celerate Now website in late April 2021 to support project awareness and distribute training and educational materials.
Regarding the ADAS awareness and adoption surveys, in 2020, the research team developed two targeted “Baseline” (pre-outreach) surveys, which yielded 726 usable responses from drivers, and 200 from motor carrier executives. Later, in the Fall of 2021, the “Year One” (post-outreach) survey was developed to identify trends across an approximately 18-month interval between Spring 2020 (baseline survey) and Fall 2021 (The Year One survey). The Year One driver survey resulted in 646 complete responses and the motor carrier survey produced 145 complete responses.
FINDINGS
- Baseline survey results specifically revealed that 64 percent of truck drivers and 86 percent of motor carrier executives holding positive perceptions of blind spot warning systems.
- The Year One survey findings indicated that, of those who had heard of Tech-Celerate Now since its introduction, four percent of drivers and 13 percent of carrier executives stated that the program positively influenced the ADAS purchase decision.
- The comparison of the Baseline survey to the Year One survey in terms of ADAS awareness indicated a positive change in the awareness among drivers, with an increase of eight percent points (from 52 to 60 percent). For motor carriers, however, a one- percent point decrease was observed, from 80 to 79 percent.
- The comparison of the Baseline survey to the Year One survey in terms of ADAS adoption indicated, for carrier executives, the average adoption level metric increased by 2.9, from 23.7 to 26.6, with the greatest increase observed in road-facing cameras (54.2 to 67.9) and LDW (31.3 to 36.5).
- According to the driver survey results, the average adoption level metric across all ADAS technologies increased by six, from 12.8 to 18.8. Specifically, large increases in adoption levels were observed in road-facing cameras (38 to 49.8), FCW (18.1 to 28), LDW (15.8 to 24.8), and BSW (8 to 16.3).
- Overall, averaged across all ADAS technologies, the comparison of the Baseline survey to the Year One survey indicated eight percent and four percent increase, respectively for the driver and carrier executive respondent groups, in the proportion reporting widespread adoption in their fleet.
