Urban Autonomy Lab
Chapter 4 · EV65

Advocates Poll — 81% Concerned About Driverless Cars, 74% Want ODD Disclosure

Date collected: 13 April 2026
Summary

81% concerned about driverless cars; 74% want mandatory ODD disclosure; 76% want AV "vision test"

Headline Finding

A national poll commissioned by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (conducted 4–8 March 2026, published April 2026) found that 81% of Americans are concerned about sharing roads with driverless cars, 74% want manufacturers required to disclose the conditions in which their vehicles can safely operate (i.e., the Operational Design Domain), and 76% support requiring autonomous vehicles to pass a “vision test” before operating on public streets.

Detail

  • Survey: CARAVAN national online survey by Big Village
  • Fieldwork: 4–8 March 2026
  • Sample: 2,023 adults aged 18+, weighted by age, sex, geographic region, race, and education
  • Commissioner: Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety
  • Key findings:
    • 81% concerned about sharing roads with driverless cars (42% “very concerned”)
    • 85% concerned about driverless tractor-trailers and delivery trucks (54% “very concerned”)
    • 74% want manufacturers required to disclose the conditions in which AVs can safely operate and ensure they do not operate outside those parameters — this is essentially public demand for mandatory ODD disclosure
    • 76% support requiring AVs to pass a “vision test” before operating on public streets
    • 61% said concerns would be addressed if companies had to meet minimum government safety requirements
    • 73% support requiring automatic emergency braking to protect bicyclists and motorcyclists
  • Context: Separate January 2026 data found only 13% of US drivers would trust riding in a self-driving vehicle; 61% would be afraid to do so
  • Political timing: Published as Congress debates Surface Transportation Reauthorisation (expires 30 September 2026) and the SELF DRIVE Act (EV64)

Governance Implication

The 74% figure on ODD disclosure is the single most important data point in this poll for the CAM paper. The public is independently demanding exactly what the paper’s Institutional ODD framework would deliver: mandatory, transparent disclosure of the conditions under which an AV can safely operate, with enforcement that prevents operation outside those conditions. This is not an abstract governance concept — it is what three-quarters of Americans say they want. The paper can now cite this as democratic legitimacy for the Institutional ODD requirement. The 81% concern figure also reinforces the Legitimacy failure mode: deployment without adequate public trust creates political conditions for reactive moratoria rather than proactive governance.

Sources

Thread