Understanding Public Acceptance of Autonomous Vehicles Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour

Kum Fai Yuen, Grace Chua, Xueqin Wang, Fei Ma and Kevin X. Li
Additional contact information
Kum Fai Yuen: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore
Grace Chua: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore
Xueqin Wang: Department of International Logistics, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 06974, Korea
Fei Ma: School of Economics and Management, Chang’An University, Xi’an 710064, China
Kevin X. Li: Ocean College, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 12, 1-19

Abstract: Public acceptance of autonomous vehicles (AVs) is vital for a society to reap their intended benefits such as reduced traffic accidents, land usage, congestion and environmental pollution. The purpose of this paper is to use the theory of planned behaviour to pinpoint and examine the components affecting public acceptance of AVs. A model consisting of a network of hypothesised relationships is introduced. Thereafter, 526 residents in Seoul, Korea, were given a survey created for this research. Subsequently, to evaluate the collected information and estimate the model, structural equation modelling was adopted. The outcomes show individuals’ mindset on AVs, subjective customs, and behavioural influence directly influencing the acceptance of AVs. Furthermore, cognitive and emotive factors, namely comparative advantage, compatibility, complexity and hedonic motivation indirectly influence the acceptance of AVs via mindset and behavioural manipulation. Based on analysing the cumulative effect, attitude emerged with the strongest effect on public acceptance of autonomous vehicles. After this is, in decreasing order of influence, behavioural control, relative advantage, subjective norms, compatibility, hedonic motivation and complexity. The findings of this study implicate the prioritisation and allocation of resources, and policies relating to marketing, education, subsidisation and infrastructure development to better public acceptance of AVs.

Keywords: autonomous vehicles; theory of planned behaviour; structural equation modelling; intention; acceptance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/12/4419/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/12/4419/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:12:p:4419-:d:373894

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().