Vikram Maheshri (University of Houston)

AI at the Wheel: The Effectiveness of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and Implications for Policy

Abstract: Automakers’ introduction of advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) technologies based on artificial intelligence raise longstanding questions of whether they improve safety and whether the government should mandate their adoption in all new vehicles.  We address those issues using a trim-level dataset of automobiles, which appears to be the first of its kind. We find that ADAS technologies reduce all accidents by roughly one third and fatal accidents by roughly half. Notwithstanding those considerable benefits, we caution against mandating those safety technologies because the external benefits associated with ADAS technologies are small relative to their considerable cost, and drivers are both adequately informed about the internal benefits of these technologies and have equitable access to them.