Armando Cartenì

Safety in automotive systems has been a major concern since the early days of vehicles on the road. In recent decades, automakers worked hard to integrate Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) into their vehicles. The aim of the paper is twofold: i) investigate the ADAS evolution over time, a trend that has made current cars safer and paved the way for self-driving mobility; ii) investigate the users’ propensity in using steering wheel controls which, as known, promise an increase in road safety. To do this, both a desk analysis and a mobility survey among Italian car drivers were performed. Survey results allowed us to investigate both the presence of these systems on board the vehicles currently used and their frequency of usage. Precisely, 60% of the respondents currently have the steering wheel controls on board their car to listen to music and/or answer calls. Of those who have these devices, about 60% (68%) of the respondents frequently (high) use steering wheel controls to answer calls (to listen to music). 82% (74%) of the drivers stated that these devices to answer calls (to listen to music) significantly improve both road safety and driving stress, (improve the overall travel experience). Furthermore, it is interesting to observe that steering wheel controls to answer calls are perceived as more useful than those to listen to music (about 8 percentage points more). Finally, among those who do not have steering wheel controls, 89% of the respondents believed they would like to have them in their next car.