The Effect of Acceptability and Personality on the Intention to Use Automated Vehicles among Chinese Samples

Weina Qu,Jing Xu,Yan Ge,Lina Kattan

doi:10.1155/2021/6632185

Abstract

The development of automated vehicles (AVs) has attracted increasing attention. Understanding public acceptance of AVs and their intention to use them, which are the primary aims of the present study, are especially important considering that increasingly more AVs will be moving on the road in the coming future. A total of 527 participants voluntarily and validly completed a series of questionnaires, including the automated vehicle acceptability scale (AVAS), Big Five Inventory (BFI), and some sociodemographic variables. The results of an internal consistency, reliability, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed the two-factor (contextual acceptability and impaired driving) structure of the AVAS. The Chinese public generally has a positive attitude towards AVs. In addition, our results indicate the possibility of the misuse of AVs. More importantly, the results reveal that contextual acceptability partially mediated the effect of agreeableness on the willingness to drive and the willingness to own AVs and fully mediated its effect on the willingness to rent AVs, while contextual acceptability and interest in impaired driving fully mediated the effect of the openness on the willingness to drive, own, and rent AVs. Manufacturers and retailers in the automotive vehicle industry should provide their customers with comprehensive information regarding the principles and limitations behind the system and the responsibility and obligations of the drivers to avoid misuse. Moreover, providing more targeted services according to customers’ different personality traits might be a useful sales technique.

Highlights

Academic Editor: Lina Kattan e development of automated vehicles (AVs) has attracted increasing attention
A total of 527 participants voluntarily and validly completed a series of questionnaires, including the automated vehicle acceptability scale (AVAS), Big Five Inventory (BFI), and some sociodemographic variables. e results of an internal consistency, reliability, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed the twofactor structure of the AVAS. e Chinese public generally has a positive attitude towards AVs
Xu and Fan [20] investigated the risk perceptions and insurance demand for AVs in the Chinese market, and the results found that 42% of the respondents believed that AVs could lead to reduced risk and that 45% believed that AVs could lower insurance rates

Summary

Literature Review

Journal of Advanced Transportation example, automated cars are expected to reduce traffic accidents by more than 80% and reduce traffic fatalities by more than 10% [10] To achieve these goals and anticipate the market diffusion of AVs, it is especially important to understand the end-user, i.e., the public’s acceptance of AVs and their consumption intention. A study in France by the authors in [16] introduced a fully automated driving acceptability scale to investigate people’s prior acceptability and attitudes towards fully AVs. the results indicated that the overall attitude was positive (the average score was 4.56 on a 7-point scale); more importantly, this study emphasized the potential risk of misuse (i.e., the inadequate use of automation without recognizing its limitations).

Method

Results

I would delegate the driving to the automated driving system if I was tired