The potential impact of media commentary and social influence on consumer preferences for driverless cars

Abstract

The emerging technology of autonomous vehicles (AVs) is envisaged to substantially alter transport systems and travel behaviour. However, this impact is conditional on the level and rate of AV market penetration. This study examines consumers’ consideration to adopt AVs, with a particular focus on the impact of informational cues from different communication channels. Data for our analysis is collected through an online survey conducted in December 2019, and our sample comprises 862 residents from Sydney, Australia. The survey asks respondents about their social networks, and their use of different mass and social media platforms. Respondents are subsequently presented a discrete choice experiment where we systematically vary informational cues about AVs from each of these communication channels, and respondents are asked to indicate their willingness to consider AVs under each scenario. This data is used to develop a latent class choice model of AV consideration as a function of the informational cues received from different communication channels. Our model also considers the level of trust that respondents associate with their social contacts when modelling the effect of word-of-mouth from these social contacts. The results reveal eleven segments in the sample that differ from one another in terms of sociodemographic attributes, evaluation of social contact trust, and the relative importance they attach to different communication channels. The findings show social media sentiment has the highest effect on AV consideration for 90 per cent of the sample. Also 3.8 per cent of the sample never consider adopting AVs, regardless of the informational cues.