Rider Interaction With Automated Cars Under Study

Automakers, suppliers and researchers are looking for cues of nervousness and comfort with the idea of self-driving cars. Just how easy or difficult it would be to use a smartphone app to hail and direct an autonomous vehicle. And don’t forget consumers’ reactions to...

As Cars Drive Themselves, Human Driving Skills May Suffer

If your car can hit the brakes in an emergency and check your blind spots, will that make you a worse driver? Increasingly, automakers are worrying it may. Driver-assist technology that keeps cars in their lanes, maintains a safe distance from other vehicles, warns of...

Road to the Future Paved With Doubt

Boom times help fuel a transformation of the industry — but to what? The auto industry seems to be roaring like a massive freight train into a neatly defined future — a brave and unmistakable new world of vehicle electrification, autonomous driving and shared...

Self-Driving Cars are Confusing Drivers—and Spooking Insurers

THE GREAT PROMISE of autonomous vehicles, aside from saving you from the tyranny of commuting, is their ability to save lives by replacing stupid humans with intelligent computers. But these cars, at least in the short-term, could make driving riskier because people...