U.S. Public preferences for weather and road condition information

An Internet survey of U.S. residents was conducted during October and November 2010, associated with the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Partnership Topic (APT) focused on mobile observations. The survey was intended to provide some basic insights into drivers' preferences for in-vehicle weather and road condition hazard information and their attitudes about sharing vehicle data. The overall results indicate that drivers are quite interested in knowing about road weather hazards while traveling, but are wary of sharing data from their vehicles and largely unwilling to pay for the in-vehicle weather information. Within these overall results, respondents who already consume more weather information had a higher interest in receiving the in-vehicle information as well as being more willing to pay for it and more likely to take action based on the presence of a hazard. They tended to be younger and would likely not be the main audience of the outreach activity to explain the benefits and privacy policy of in-vehicle weather information.