Case study on technological acceptance of autonomous vehicles and the influence of situational awareness: Lane detection in winter conditions

The new technological era and digital transformation have brought different advances to our lives, among which autonomous vehicles (AVs) stand out. The increasing visibility of these has given way to several investigations on the acceptance and perception of this technology, however, in many of these studies the participants are based solely on a preconceived belief since most have not driven or had contact with these types of vehicles. This issue needs to be explored further, however, test studies with real AVs are expensive, dangerous and unethical. In response to this, virtual reality emerges as a possible solution as it provides a realistic, safe and controlled environment, where different road and weather situations can be implemented. This paper presents a preliminary research design, based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which seeks to assess and infer the level of acceptance of AVs and user behaviour when using and interacting with them, based on an immersive virtual simulation of an AV, where the user is exposed to a risky situation where the vehicle is unable to recognize the lane due to weather difficulties.