Will the widespread driverless passenger vehicles help the elderly and people with disabilities live more independently? Insights from a nationwide survey

Abstract

Despite the increased interest in the use of driverless passenger vehicles (DPVs) for the elderly and people with disabilities, only a handful of research has utilized large-scale datasets encompassing mixed demographics. Thus, the findings may lack generalizability. Therefore, this study employs Bayesian Networks on a nationwide survey dataset to explore the support of the notion that DPVs will help older adults and people with disabilities live more independently. Results indicated that the support from elderly people is relatively lower, while the income, higher education level, and male respondents are associated with increased support. Furthermore, democrats and other conservatives are less likely to support the ideology, while liberals are more likely. Furthermore, a combination of scenarios indicates that most support for this idea comes from non-elderly people, with income producing the largest difference, followed by education level. On the contrary, non-elderly conservatives showed the largest level of resistance. The findings may imply that the tale of the use of DPV for the elderly and people with disability may be decided by the non-elderly and may not get full support from the elderly. Several recommendations are provided to improve the use of DPVs for the elderly and people with disabilities.