Acceptance of Full Driving Automation: Personally Owned and Shared-Use Concepts

Area of Science:

• Human-computer interaction
• Transportation engineering
• Automotive technology

Background:

• Full driving automation (FDA) development is rapidly advancing, with significant manufacturer investment.
• Understanding user acceptance factors for FDA remains a critical research gap.
• Two distinct FDA concepts exist: personally owned and shared-use systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and test user acceptance models for both personally owned and shared-use full driving automation.
• To identify key factors influencing user intention to adopt FDA technologies.
• To differentiate acceptance drivers between personal and shared autonomous vehicle contexts.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a mixed-methods approach combining focus group discussions and online surveys.
• Conducted focus groups with 30 potential users to explore perceptions of FDA acceptance.
• Administered online surveys to 310 and 250 participants to test hypothesized acceptance models for personally owned and shared-use FDA, respectively.

Main Results:

• Perceived usefulness and safety significantly influence user acceptance in both FDA models.
• Direct impact of perceived ease of use on acceptance was found to be insignificant.
• Perceived ease of use had a lesser indirect impact in personally owned FDA compared to shared-use; usefulness, trust, and compatibility were more critical for personally owned FDA.

Conclusions:

• Identified a chain of constructs influencing behavioral intention to use for both personally owned and shared-use FDA.
• User acceptance is influenced by a complex interplay of safety, usefulness, trust, compatibility, and ease of use.
• Findings offer valuable guidelines for stakeholders in developing and deploying FDA technologies.