Evaluating Onboard Multitasking on Mode Choice: Conventional Car and Autonomous Vehicle

Abstract

Travelers try to conduct onboard activities during traveling to decrease the negative impact of travel time. This research paper studied the impact of multitasking availability on the travel behavior of people onboard of autonomous vehicle (AV) and conventional car (CAR). Several studies focused mainly on the travel behavior of people onboard of conventional transport modes (CTMs) rather than AV because the last is not still on the market. Besides, a scarcity in studies that concern multitasking in AV is noticed. In this paper impacts of multitasking on the travel behavior were covered concerning two transport modes, CAR, and shared autonomous vehicle (SAV) where only the main destinations of travelers inside urban areas are considered. A discrete choice experiment was prepared and followed by a stated preference (SP) survey. A sample size of 2008 observations was collected. Panel data-Mixed Logit (ML) and Multinomial Logit (MNL) models were examined including the travel cost, travel time, and multitasking availability. The results are, the value of travel time (VOT) of SAV is lower than CAR, the multitasking availability increases the probability of being in a transport mode, and the impact of multitasking in SAV is higher than CAR. Thus, people tend to choose SAV over CAR to maximize the utilities when the multitasking availability is considered.