A Survey on the Intention to Use a Fully-Automated Vehicle

Abstract

Automated vehicles, with the rapid development in recent years, are closer to becoming a reality. The fully-automated bus is going to be open to the public in China this year. Thus, it is indispensable to know the public attitudes to automated vehicles. This study surveyed 725 participants on their intended use of full-automated vehicles. Particularly, nearly 200 of them had a similar experience as passengers of the fully-automated vehicles. Overall, results revealed that participants were “somewhat agree” to take an automated vehicle (mean score = 5, rang 1–7, 7 represents extremely agree). In general, 6.62% of the participants were moderately or extremely willing to use an automated vehicle (score 6–7), and 25.52% of the participants were somewhat willing to use an automated vehicle (score 5–6). 30.21% of the participants were unwilling to use automated vehicles (score < 4). Moreover, the participants with similar experience, were more willing to use an automated vehicle than those without experience. These results show that, in general, the Chinese people hold an inclusive and acceptable attitude towards fully-automated vehicles. Enhancing the understanding of automated vehicles, such as take a test ride, will help to further promote the intention to use the automated vehicles.