1. Attitudes towards privately-owned and shared autonomous vehicles
- Author
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Wang, Sicheng, Jiang, Zhiqiu, Noland, Robert B., and Mondschein, Andrew S.
- Subjects
Risk perception ,Population ,Autonomous vehicles ,Taxis ,Transportation ,Early adopter ,0502 economics and business ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Technology acceptance ,education ,050107 human factors ,Applied Psychology ,Civil and Structural Engineering ,Multinomial logistic regression ,Service (business) ,050210 logistics & transportation ,education.field_of_study ,05 social sciences ,Purchasing ,Exploratory factor analysis ,Attitudes ,Automotive Engineering ,Factor analysis ,Psychology ,Social psychology - Abstract
Research on attitudes towards autonomous vehicles (AVs) shows variation across gender, age, and socio-economic factors. While previous research has emphasized specific features and qualities of AVs, little is known about how attitudinal factors shape AV acceptance across a range of AV “modes” from privately-owned AVs to AV taxis shared with strangers. With an online panel of 834 US-based participants, we examine attitudes towards AVs and sharing. An exploratory factor analysis establishes four attitudinal dimensions: technology acceptance, risk-taking, traffic regulation, and driving enjoyment. We estimate multinomial logistic regression models to examine the impact of these four factors on attitudes toward AVs, willingness to purchase AVs, willingness to use AVs as a taxi service, and willingness to share AV taxis with strangers. We find a complex relationship between psychological factors and AV attitudes. “Early adopters” of technology and those who support stricter traffic regulations are more likely to have a positive attitude about AVs, whereas those who avoid risky behavior were more likely to have a negative attitude instead of a neutral attitude. Similar patterns were found across models of purchasing, using, and sharing AVs. The results imply that people who support traffic regulations may perceive AVs as a safer transport mode than human-driven cars, while those who avoid risk-taking behavior may perceive AVs to be more dangerous. However, we find that a large fraction of the population is not yet ready to use an AV with no driver, and overall reluctance to share a ride in an AV taxi.
- Published
- 2020
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