America meets the
self-driving car.
Self-driving cars are no longer a distant idea. Most U.S. adults have heard of them, a growing share have seen one, and roughly one in fourteen have taken a ride. This brief traces how Americans are moving from awareness to real-world interaction — and what they think about the technology.
From awareness to experience: where every American stands today.
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are operating on public roads in Phoenix, San Francisco, Austin, and a growing number of cities. Self-driving ridehailing services are already available to the public in these markets. The Transportation Heartbeat of America (THA) Survey, conducted with 8,567 U.S. adults nationwide in February and March 2026 by the TBD National Center, captures where the broader American public stands in relation to that reality.
The headline finding: roughly 7% of U.S. adults — approximately one in fourteen — has ridden in an AV, a meaningful early-adopter base given that commercial operations remain concentrated in a handful of cities. Eight in ten Americans (81%) are aware that AVs are being offered as a ridehailing service, reflecting how widely the technology has registered in public consciousness. The chart below shows where the full population stands today.
U.S. adults have ridden in a self-driving car — a technology whose commercial operations currently span just a handful of cities.
Who rides — and where?
Riding rates are highest among adults aged 25–44, those with a Master’s degree or higher, and residents of the West — where commercial AV ridehailing services are currently concentrated. Men report higher riding rates than women (10.2% vs. 4.1% of all adults in each group), a gap that likely reflects broader differences in ridehailing use. Across income groups, higher-income respondents are considerably more likely to have ridden — consistent with current AV service pricing and deployment in higher-income urban markets. Use the controls below to explore how riding rates vary across the population.
Most Americans have a clear sense of how comfortable they would feel in and around AVs.
The survey asked Americans to rate their comfort across four situations involving AVs. Comfort levels are broadly similar across three of the four scenarios — riding alone, walking or biking nearby, and driving alongside one — with roughly one in four Americans feeling comfortable in each. Comfort is lowest when it comes to sharing a ride with strangers, where only about one in six feel at ease. The results suggest that the social dimension of shared AV rides is a distinct concern, separate from comfort with the technology itself.
“Roughly one in four Americans feels comfortable riding alone in a self-driving car. That figure drops to one in six when sharing the ride with strangers.”
Who feels most comfortable
Education is the strongest differentiator: those with a graduate degree are roughly three times more likely to feel comfortable across all four scenarios than those with a high school education or less. Younger adults and men also report higher comfort across all four scenarios, as do higher-income respondents — consistent with greater prior exposure to ridehailing services. Use the controls below to explore comfort by demographic group.
Americans hold clear views on self-driving cars — views shaped as much by expectation as by experience.
Three in four Americans want the ability to manually take control of an AV if something goes wrong, and an equal share believe communities should have a say in how AI is used in transportation. Just over half are skeptical that AVs will be widely available in the near future. Support for public investment in AV infrastructure and expressed trust in AI transportation systems are each held by about one in five Americans. A similar share — roughly one in four — say they would be more willing to cross the street in front of a self-driving car than a human-driven one, because they trust it is programmed to stop. Taken together, the public is engaged with the implications of the technology — supportive of oversight and personal control, and measured in its expectations about adoption pace.
Across all six items, education is the most consistent predictor of variation. Those with graduate degrees are more likely to express trust in AI transportation systems and support for public investment, while skepticism about near-term availability is more evenly distributed across groups. Age and income show similar gradients. Use the chart below to explore how views vary across demographic groups.
of Americans want the ability to manually take control of an AV if something goes wrong — tied with the share who say communities should have a say in AI-powered transportation, and the highest agreement figures in the survey.
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Sample. The survey was administered to approximately 8,567 U.S. adults (aged 18 and older) nationwide between February and March 2026, designed to be representative of the U.S. adult population across gender, age, education, census region, household vehicle ownership, and household income.
Respondents were recruited through an online panel with quotas specified across gender, age, education, household income, census division, and area type to ensure demographic and geographic representativeness. Multiple attention checks and quality control measures were applied throughout.
Weighting. All figures are from a weighted analysis. Survey responses were weighted to correct for nonresponse and to align with national demographic targets based on Current Population Survey benchmarks for the U.S. adult population.
Sample composition. The table below shows the unweighted and weighted distributions of key demographic characteristics in the survey sample.
| Attribute | Unweighted (%) | Weighted (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Gender | ||
| Men | 47.1% | 49.0% |
| Women | 52.9% | 51.0% |
| Age | ||
| 18–24 years | 11.4% | 11.7% |
| 25–44 years | 31.6% | 34.5% |
| 45–64 years | 29.7% | 30.9% |
| 65+ years | 27.4% | 22.9% |
| Education | ||
| High school or less | 32.2% | 37.3% |
| Some college or associate | 32.5% | 28.5% |
| Bachelor’s degree | 17.3% | 16.4% |
| Master’s or higher | 18.1% | 17.8% |
| Household Income | ||
| Under $50,000 | 39.2% | 30.5% |
| $50,000–$99,999 | 26.5% | 28.2% |
| $100,000–$149,999 | 19.7% | 17.8% |
| $150,000 or more | 14.6% | 23.6% |
| Census Region | ||
| Northeast | 20.5% | 17.3% |
| Midwest | 20.6% | 20.4% |
| South | 37.4% | 38.7% |
| West | 21.5% | 23.6% |
Research team. The THA Survey was developed and conducted by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, Arizona State University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the City College of New York, and the University of Washington, with support from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Acknowledgements: Fan Yu, Mohammed Zaid, and Miguel G. Rodriguez Ocana, Graduate Research Associates at Arizona State University, contributed to the processing, analysis, and visualization of data used in this data brief.