Anticipated fear and anxiety of Automated Driving Systems: Estimating the prevalence in a national representative survey

BACKGROUND: Automated Driving Systems (ADS) may reshape mobility. Yet, related fear and anxiety are largely unknown. We estimated the prevalence and risk factors of anticipated anxiety towards ADS. METHOD: In a nationally representative face-to-face household survey, we assessed anticipated levels of anxiety towards ADS based on DSM-5 specific phobia criteria, using structured diagnostic interviews. We estimated weighted prevalences and conducted adjusted logistic regression models. RESULTS: Of N = 2076 respondents, 40.82% (95%-confidence interval (CI) 37.73–43.98) anticipated experiencing some symptoms of phobia of ADS, 15.22% (CI 13.19–17.51) anticipated subthreshold phobia, and 3.39% (CI 2.42–4.75) anticipated full-blown phobia of ADS. Of subjects anticipating subthreshold phobia, 74.02% showed no strong, enduring fears of driving non-automated cars and 65.07% presented no other specific phobias (full-blown anticipated phobia: 50.37% and 50.03%, respectively). Anticipated phobia highly overlapped with anticipating marked or strong fears of passively encountering ADS in traffic (odds ratio 312.4–1982.2). CONCLUSION: About 20% of subjects anticipated at least subthreshold and 4% of subjects anticipated full-blown phobia of ADS. It appears to be distinct from fears related to non-automated driving and other specific phobias. Our findings call for prevention and treatment of phobia of ADS as they become increasingly ubiquitous.