Preparing Society for Automated Vehicles: Perceptions of the Importance and Urgency of Emerging Issues of Governance, Regulations, and Wider Impacts

Su-Yen Chen, Hsin-Yu Kuo and Chiachun Lee
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Su-Yen Chen: Institute of Learning Sciences and Technologies, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan
Hsin-Yu Kuo: Institute of Learning Sciences and Technologies, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan
Chiachun Lee: Institute of Learning Sciences and Technologies, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 19, 1-20

Abstract: This study explores the overall picture of how people perceive the importance level and urgency level regarding issues associated with automated vehicles, by sorting out ten issues, developing a questionnaire with 66 measurement items, and investigating how Artificial Intelligence (AI) experts and Computer Science (CS)/Electrical Engineering (EE) majors assessed these issues. The findings suggest that AI experts in Taiwan believed that the top five issues for preparing a society for autonomous vehicles (AVs) should include (1) data privacy and cybersecurity, (2) regulation considerations, (3) infrastructure, (4) governance, and (5) public acceptance. On the other hand, for their student counterparts, the results (1) demonstrate a somewhat different order from the third to the fifth place, (2) show an attention-focused profile on the issue of cybersecurity and data privacy, and (3) indicate that gender and a few wider-impact variables (technology innovation, infrastructure) are significant predictors for the assessment on the importance level of AVs, while some wider-impact variables (technology innovation, governance, economic benefits, infrastructure), which are positively associated, as well as concerns variables (cybersecurity and data privacy, regulations), which are negatively associated, could be predictors for the urgency level of AVs. Suggestions for future research and policymakers are provided.

Keywords: automated vehicles; governance; regulation; social impact; perceptions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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