Amused, accepted, and used? Attitudes and emotions towards automated vehicles, their relationships, and predictive value for usage intention

Automated vehicles (AVs) have left the laboratories and can be experienced in several projects, e.g. at the premises of a clinic in Germany. With this transition, research on AV attitudes no longer needs to rely on questionnaires with hypothetical scenarios and simulations. Previous research – limited by the unavailability of AVs – has provided ambivalent results regarding age and gender differences in attitudes towards AVs. We present research results about the role of age and gender in connection with attitudes such as acceptance, perceived safety, and trust, as well as intention to use. We additionally demonstrate relationships between those constructs and emotions such as amusement, fear, and surprise. Data were collected from participants (n = 125) after having experienced an AV ride with level 4 automation on two campuses of a clinic in Berlin, Germany. Results reveal strong correlations between all attitudes (0.55 ≤ r ≤ 0.71; p < 0.01) and show acceptance and perceived safety to be solid predictors of intention to use AVs. We also found age to be a significant predictor for usage intention even when other attitudes are considered (β = −0.22; p < 0.01). MANOVA results point to gender differences in all constructs, but with limited confidence (5.40 ≤ F ≤ 18.34; p ≤ 0.02). However, we reject our hypothesis that young men are highly accepting, trusting, and intending to use AVs compared to other combinations of age and gender. We recommend using a mix of attitude, emotion, and behavioural (intention) measures in future research on AVs together with more transparency regarding construct definitions and study materials

Investigating Adoption Behavior of Owned and Shared Autonomous Vehicles: An Updated Technology Acceptance Model

Transportation systems will be likely transformed by the emergence of autonomous vehicles (AVs), either owned privately or used in a shared system (SAVs), which promise for safe, convenient, and efficient mobility, to name a few benefits to the society. The manifestation of (S)AV benefits, however, is still dubious due to the observed public reluctance, or at best neutrality, towards (S)AVs, especially SAVs. The public\u27s perception towards these innovations is still unclear, therefore, a gap remains in the analysis of individuals’ behavioral intention (BI) to use AVs and SAVs. To fill that gap, this study uses a behavioral psychology method. Specifically, an updated technology acceptance model (TAM) is proposed which includes the ad-hoc latent constructs (i.e., perceived usefulness, BI to use AVs, and BI to use SAVs) as well as new latent constructs explaining perceived concern about (S)AV safety, pro-drive attitude, green travel pattern, and shared-mobility experience. The proposed TAM is empirically estimated on dataset of the California Vehicle Survey collected by California Energy Commission in 2019. The study findings reveal the positive tendency of individuals who experience shared mobility services (e.g., Uber and Lyft) towards both AVs and SAVs. Also, those experiencing green travel (i.e., active travel modes) prefer SAVs over AVs. In addition, pro-drive persons enjoy driving themselves instead of being in control and have negative intentions towards both AVs and SAVs, especially SAVs. To capture heterogeneity of the individuals, the findings are further analyzed by connecting individuals’ tendencies to each latent construct to their socio-economic attributes. The insights provided by the present research study can be used in future policy decisions as well as studies on technological advances in automated vehicle design and development

What impressions do users have after a ride in an automated shuttle? An interview study

In the future, automated shuttles may provide on-demand transport and serve as feeders to public transport systems. However, automated shuttles will only become widely used if they are accepted by the public. This paper presents results of an interview study with 30 users of an automated shuttle on the EUREF (Europäisches Energieforum) campus in Berlin-Schöneberg to obtain in-depth understanding of the acceptance of automated shuttles as feeders to public transport systems. From the interviews, we identified 340 quotes, which were classified into six categories: (1) expectations about the capabilities of the automated shuttle (10% of quotes), (2) evaluation of the shuttle performance (10%), (3) service quality (34%), (4) risk and benefit perception (15%), (5) travel purpose (25%), and (6) trust (6%). The quotes indicated that respondents had idealized expectations about the technological capabilities of the automated shuttle, which may have been fostered by the media. Respondents were positive about the idea of using automated shuttles as feeders to public transport systems but did not believe that the shuttle will allow them to engage in cognitively demanding activities such as working. Furthermore, 20% of respondents indicated to prefer supervision of shuttles via an external control room or steward on board over unsupervised automation. In conclusion, even though the current automated shuttle did not live up to the respondents’ expectations, respondents still perceived automated shuttles as a viable option for feeders to public transport systems.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Transport and PlanningHuman-Robot InteractionIntelligent VehiclesTransport and Plannin

User expectations of partial driving automation capabilities and their effect on information design preferences in the vehicle

Partially automated vehicles present interface design challenges in ensuring the driver remains alert should the vehicle need to hand back control at short notice, but without exposing the driver to cognitive overload. To date, little is known about driver expectations of partial driving automation and whether this affects the information they require inside the vehicle. Twenty-five participants were presented with five partially automated driving events in a driving simulator. After each event, a semi-structured interview was conducted. The interview data was coded and analysed using grounded theory. From the results, two groupings of driver expectations were identified: High Information Preference (HIP) and Low Information Preference (LIP) drivers; between these two groups the information preferences differed. LIP drivers did not want detailed information about the vehicle presented to them, but the definition of partial automation means that this kind of information is required for safe use. Hence, the results suggest careful thought as to how information is presented to them is required in order for LIP drivers to safely using partial driving automation. Conversely, HIP drivers wanted detailed information about the system's status and driving and were found to be more willing to work with the partial automation and its current limitations. It was evident that the drivers' expectations of the partial automation capability differed, and this affected their information preferences. Hence this study suggests that HMI designers must account for these differing expectations and preferences to create a safe, usable system that works for everyone. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

TECHNOLOGICAL ENTHUSIASM AS A DISTINCTIVE ELEMENT FOR ADOPTING SEMI AND FULLY AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

Smart cities rely on digital technologies that might be questionably acceptable among the population due to their newness. Millennials as a generation that was born into the setting featuring smart technologies seem to be an appropriate focus group for understanding the attitudes towards these technologies. Given that autonomous vehicles (AV) are the future mobility service in smart cities, an important question regarding their adoption arises. Previous research has shown that technological enthusiasm is an important factor for adopting new technologies. The purpose of this paper is therefore to examine the attitude of millennials towards semi- and fully AV. AV trust, AV concerns, AV benefits, AV safety and AV data sharing have been shown to be additional factors that are important in addressing AV adoption. Besides, statistically significant differences between the groups, namely technologically more enthusiastic and technologically less enthusiastic, were identified and further analysed

Toward a User Acceptance Model of Autonomous Driving

Autonomous driving is becoming the next big digital disruption in the automotive industry. However, the possibility of integrating autonomous driving vehicles into current transportation systems not only involves technological issues but also requires the acceptance and adoption of users. Therefore, this paper develops a conceptual model for user acceptance of autonomous driving vehicles. The corresponding model is tested through a standardized survey of 470 respondents in Germany. Finally, the findings are discussed in relation to the current developments in the automotive industry, and recommendations for further research are given

Towards Identifying and closing Gaps in Assurance of autonomous Road vehicleS - a collection of Technical Notes Part 1

This report provides an introduction and overview of the Technical Topic Notes (TTNs) produced in the Towards Identifying and closing Gaps in Assurance of autonomous Road vehicleS (Tigars) project. These notes aim to support the development and evaluation of autonomous vehicles. Part 1 addresses: Assurance-overview and issues, Resilience and Safety Requirements, Open Systems Perspective and Formal Verification and Static Analysis of ML Systems. Part 2: Simulation and Dynamic Testing, Defence in Depth and Diversity, Security-Informed Safety Analysis, Standards and Guidelines

Factors affecting the adoption and use of urban air mobility

Technological advances have recently led to the development of urban air mobility (UAM), an alternative transportation mode with several concepts including vehicles operated by on-demand fully-automated vertical take-off and landing aircraft (VTOL) for intra-city passenger transportation. However, despite a growing interest in UAM, understanding users’ perceptions to it remains limited. This research aims to identify and quantify the factors affecting the adoption and use of UAM, based on relevant tools from the literature, such as recurring factors in studies on aerial vehicle concepts, ground autonomous vehicles, but also acceptance models, such as the Technology Acceptance Model by Davis et al. (1989). A stated-preference survey was developed to assess the perception of users in terms of adoption time horizon, including options such as the first six years of the service’s implementation, “unsure”, and “never”. The obtained results were evaluated using exploratory factor analyses, and the specification and estimation of suitable discrete choice models, multinomial logit models (MNLs) and ordered logit models (OLMs), with adoption time horizon as dependent variable. Findings revealed the importance of safety and trust, affinity to automation, data concerns, social attitude, and socio-demographics for adoption. Factors, such as the value of time savings, the perception of automation costs, and service reliability, were also found to be highly influential. There was also an indication that skeptical respondents, i.e. answering “unsure”, had a behavior similar to late and non-adopters, i.e. adoption time horizon higher than six years or answering “never”. The summarized results were represented in an extended Technology Acceptance Model for urban air mobility, and provided insights for policymakers and industrial stakeholders

Trusting Beliefs and Bases in the Adoption of Autonomous Last Mile Services (ALMS)

Last mile connectivity is crucial in transporting people from a transportation hub to a final destination. Autonomous last-mile service (ALMS) is one of the latest solutions for this problem, offering on-demand transportation connecting to the primary transportation method and operated automatically. However, the implementation of ALMS poses several challenges. Trust is an essential factor in enabling users to overcome their concerns about risk and uncertainty. Although trust can be developed towards various entities, existing studies have only explored trust in autonomous vehicles, without addressing overall trust in the ALMS. Additionally, ALMS is a sophisticated social-technological service, consisting of multiple components that could lead to different trust bases. Our research aims to identify the factors influencing trust in ALMS and identify ways to promote trust and overcome potential obstacles to adoption