Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Ruckersville, Virginia.
Westat, Rockville, Maryland.
Traffic Inj Prev. 2022;23(1):6-10. doi: 10.1080/15389588.2021.2004400. Epub 2021 Dec 7.
Teen drivers experience elevated crash risk compared with experienced adult drivers. Active parental oversight can improve teen driving safety, and several manufacturers have released teen-focused safety features over the past decade. Still, parents don't always use these systems and often don't even know their vehicle is equipped. A recent survey found that parents who do know about such systems on their vehicle first learned of them from a salesperson at a dealership. The current study examined how salespeople discuss and sell teen-specific safety systems on vehicles to parents shopping for a new teen driver.
The study focused on four vehicle brands. Two researchers posed as the parents of a new teen driver who were shopping for a vehicle for their teen. They entered dealerships and conducted semistructured interviews with the salesperson that approached them, using prompts of increasing specificity about their teen driver and their interest in safety, and tracking at what point each salesperson mentioned their brand's teen-specific systems, what features they mentioned, and how accurate those mentions were.
Thirty of the 40 participating salespeople were able to mention their brand's teen-specific system at some point during the procedure. Hyundai salespeople most consistently brought up their brand's teen features, and Chevy salespeople mentioned the most features while Ford salespeople mentioned the fewest. Salespeople often mentioned speed-related features, although the most commonly mentioned features varied by brand. No participating salespeople reported receiving training specifically about their brand's teen features.
Most salespeople approached did mention their brand's teen-focused safety systems, but did not usually do so until they had received more targeted prompts. Information these salespeople did share was often vague and general. Salespeople are a key source of information about a vehicle's specific and relevant safety features, and parents without at least some vague preexisting knowledge about the systems or features that could be available on a vehicle of interest are not likely to leave a dealership with a clear idea of all available features that could aid their efforts to keep their teen drivers safe.
青少年驾驶员比经验丰富的成年驾驶员遭遇更高的撞车风险。积极的家长监督可以提高青少年驾驶的安全性，过去十年间，几家制造商已发布了针对青少年的安全功能。尽管如此，家长并不总是使用这些系统，而且往往甚至不知道他们的车辆配备了这些系统。最近的一项调查发现，了解其车辆上存在此类系统的家长，是从汽车经销商处的销售人员那里第一次得知这些系统的。本研究调查了销售人员在向为青少年购车的家长推销针对青少年的特定安全系统时，是如何进行讨论和推销的。
本研究重点关注四个汽车品牌。两名研究人员扮演新青少年驾驶员的父母，他们正在为青少年购买车辆。他们进入汽车经销商处，并与接近他们的销售人员进行半结构化访谈，使用越来越具体的提示来了解他们的青少年驾驶员及其对安全性的兴趣，并记录每个销售人员在何时提及他们品牌的青少年特定系统、他们提到的功能以及这些提及的准确性。
在参与的 40 名销售人员中，有 30 名销售人员在程序的某个阶段能够提及他们品牌的青少年特定系统。现代销售人员最一致地提出他们品牌的青少年功能，雪佛兰销售人员提到的功能最多，而福特销售人员提到的功能最少。销售人员经常提到与速度相关的功能，尽管最常提到的功能因品牌而异。没有参与的销售人员报告说他们接受过专门针对其品牌青少年功能的培训。
大多数接近的销售人员确实提到了他们品牌的以青少年为重点的安全系统，但通常直到他们收到更具体的提示后才会提及。这些销售人员分享的信息通常是模糊和笼统的。销售人员是了解车辆特定相关安全功能的关键信息来源，如果家长对他们感兴趣的车辆上可能存在的系统或功能没有至少一些模糊的预先了解，他们不太可能离开经销商处，对所有可能有助于他们努力让青少年驾驶员安全的可用功能有一个清晰的了解。
