New research has found the majority of Australian motorists aren’t yet ready to fully adopt in-car technologies such as adaptive cruise control, brake assist, and assisted parking, despite owning vehicles equipped for such functions.

A study conducted by Australian servicing and research company mycar have found that despite 76 per cent of drivers owning cars with some form of advanced driver assist systems (ADAS), only around 30 per cent of Australians have used adaptive cruise or lane assist in their most used vehicle.

Further, a reduced 28 per cent of respondents say they have used brake assist, and only 22 per cent have used assisted parking.

mycar head of technical transformation Tom Hatch says “the trust gap isn’t about capability – it’s about confidence and understanding”.

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“Features like adaptive cruise control and lane assist are designed to make driving safer and less stressful, yet only around a third of drivers regularly use them,” he told CarExpert.

“These technologies can reduce the risk of collisions, manage fatigue, and improve efficiency, but uncertainty around how they work – and whether they can be trusted – is holding drivers back.”

The research comes as driver assistance systems become increasingly sophisticated, as evidenced by Tesla’s recent rollout of its Full Self-Driving (supervised) system in Australia and New Zealand.

Even if this feature is currently limited to one brand and costs more than $10,000 to enable, it’s likely that more brands will develop their own systems in the coming years, making the technology more accessible.