As the worldwide conversation around assisted and automatic vehicles (AVs) evolves, the MIT Advanced Vehicle Technology (AVT) Consortium continues to steer cutting-edge research aimed toward understanding how drivers interact with emerging vehicle technologies.
Since its launch in 2015, the AVT Consortium — a worldwide academic-industry collaboration on developing a data-driven understanding of how drivers reply to commercially available vehicle technologies — has developed a data-driven approach to studying consumer attitudes and driving behavior across diverse populations, creating unique, multifaceted, and world-leading datasets to enable a various set of research applications. This research offers critical insights into consumer behaviors, system performance, and the way technology impacts real-world driving, helping to shape the long run of transportation.
“Cultivating public trust in AI can be essentially the most significant factor for the long run of assisted and automatic vehicles,” says Bryan Reimer, AVT Consortium founder and a research engineer on the MIT AgeLab throughout the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL). “Without trust, technology adoption won’t ever reach its potential, and will stall. Our research goals to bridge this gap by understanding driver behavior and translating those insights into safer, more intuitive systems that enable safer, convenient, comfortable, sustainable and economical mobility.”
Latest insights from the J.D. Power Mobility Confidence Index Study
A recent Mobility Confidence Index Study, conducted in collaboration with J.D. Power, indicated that public readiness for autonomous vehicles has increased modestly after a two-year decline. While this shift is very important for the broader adoption of AV technology, it is only one element of the continued research throughout the AVT Consortium, which is currently co-directed by Reimer, Bruce Mehler, and Pnina Gershon. The study, which surveys consumer attitudes toward autonomous vehicles, reflects a growing interest within the technology — but consumer perceptions are only a part of the complex equation that AVT researchers are working to unravel.
“The modest increase in AV readiness is encouraging,” Reimer notes. “But constructing lasting trust requires us to go deeper, examining how drivers interact with these systems in practice. Trust isn’t built on interest alone; it’s about making a reliable and comprehensible user experience that folks feel secure engaging with over time. Trust will be eroded quickly.”
Constructing a data-driven understanding of driving behavior
The AVT Consortium’s approach involves gathering extensive real-world data on driver interactions across age groups, experience levels, and vehicles. These data form one among the most important datasets of its kind, enabling researchers to review system performance, driver behavior, and attitudes toward assistive and automatic technologies. AVT research goals to match and contrast the advantages of varied manufacturers’ embodiments of technologies. The vision for AVT research is that identifying essentially the most promising attributes of varied manufactured systems makes it easier and faster for brand spanking new designs to evolve from the ability of the positive.
“The work of the AVT Consortium exemplifies MIT’s commitment to understanding the human side of technology,” says Yossi Sheffi, director of the CTL. “By diving deep into driver behavior and attitudes toward assisted and automatic systems, the AVT Consortium is laying the groundwork for a future where these technologies are each trusted and widely adopted. This research is important for making a transportation landscape that’s secure, efficient, and adaptable to real-world human needs.”
The AVT Consortium’s insights have proven worthwhile in helping to shape vehicle design to fulfill the needs of real-world drivers. By understanding how drivers reply to these technologies, the consortium’s work supports the event of AI systems that feel trustworthy and intuitive, addressing drivers’ concerns and fostering confidence within the technology.
“We’re not only thinking about whether persons are open to using assistive and automatic vehicle technologies,” adds Reimer. “We’re digging into how they use these technologies, what challenges they encounter, and the way we will improve system design to make these technologies safer and more intuitive for all drivers.”
An interdisciplinary approach to vehicle technology
The AVT Consortium will not be only a research effort — it’s a community that brings together academic researchers, industry partners, and consumer organizations. By working with stakeholders from across the automotive, technology, and insurance industries, the AVT team can explore the complete range of challenges and opportunities presented by emerging vehicle technologies to make sure a comprehensive, practical, and multi-stakeholder approach within the rapidly evolving mobility landscape. The interdisciplinary framework can be crucial to understanding how AI-driven systems can support humans beyond the automotive.
“As vehicle technologies evolve, it’s crucial to know how they intersect with the on a regular basis experiences of drivers across all ages,” says Joe Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab. “The AVT Consortium’s approach, specializing in each data and human-centered insights, reflects a profound commitment to creating mobility systems that genuinely serve people. The AgeLab is proud to support this work, which is instrumental in making future vehicle systems intuitive, secure, and empowering for everybody.”
“The longer term of mobility relies on our ability to construct systems that drivers can trust and feel comfortable using,” says Reimer. “Our mission at AVT will not be only to develop a data-driven understanding of how drivers across the lifespan use and respond to varied vehicle technologies, but in addition to offer actionable insights into consumer attitudes to reinforce safety and value.”
Shaping the long run of mobility
As assistive and automatic vehicles turn out to be more common on our roads, the work of the AVT Consortium will proceed to play a critical role in shaping the long run of transportation. By prioritizing data-driven insights and human-centered design, the AVT Consortium helps to put the inspiration for a safer, smarter, and more trusted mobility future.
MIT CTL is a world leader in supply chain management research and education, with over 50 years of experience. The middle’s work spans industry partnerships, cutting-edge research, and the advancement of sustainable supply chain practices.
