Modelling Users’ Preferences Towards Autonomous Vehicles

The demand for autonomous vehicles (AVs) will most likely grow in the upcoming years, thus revolutionising transport. As highlighted by KPMG and many academics, one of the key factors of the mass implementation of AVs is their public acceptance. As a result, there is a growing body of literature investigating consumer acceptance of AVs. The authors of these studies mostly use various versions of the available technology acceptance models. However, there is a limitation to using these models to investigate the consumer acceptance of AVs, since they assume that the respondents have real-life experience of using the given technology, which is not the case with AVs. In this pilot research, the author uses conjoint analysis, which is widely applied to better understand users’ preferences during product development and research. The product attributes are formed according to the independent variables of the model of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. Eighteen cards were created with a combination of different attribute levels. These cards were evaluated by 202 respondents in two steps. It was found that this research model is capable of measuring users’ preferences towards AVs, and safety is the most important factor in the decision-making process.