Autonomous Vehicles
The technology arrived.
Trust is still en route.
AV taxis are already carrying hundreds of thousands of riders a week — and half of Americans don't know it. We track who rides, who believes, and what actually builds public confidence as autonomy spreads from city to city.
Executive Summary
The essential data and strategy from across our studies, all on one page. Read it in five minutes & download the PDF.
Latest data & strategy
Numbers don't have faces: the paradoxical power of anecdotes
The evidence that convinces a scientist rarely moves an audience. A rule of thumb for when to speak from the data and when to tell a story.
First it was the enthusiasts. Now it's your neighbor.
Mapping the changing robotaxi rider onto the diffusion of innovations curve as Waymo scaled tenfold.
AVs are safe. Now we need safety beliefs.
Support for AVs hinges on one core belief — whether they're safer than human drivers — and everything else is downstream.
Full report: Already here but barely known — public opinion on autonomous vehicles in 2025
Our landmark national survey: willingness to ride, the awareness gap, safety perceptions, policy support, and trust in developers.
How can 1,000 people tell us what the whole nation thinks?
Why a well-conducted survey of 1,000 people reliably captures the opinions of an entire country.
How to communicate uncertainties without losing credibility
When acknowledging uncertainty helps your message — and the situations where it backfires.
Three overlooked factors in communication strategy
The Reach × Effect tradeoff, the Immediate Effects Bias, and the Zero Resistance Fallacy — and how to avoid all three.