What drives users to accept flying cars for urban air mobility? Findings from an empirical study

The rapid progression of technology has enabled the transformation of flying cars from a theoretical concept to a practical reality, aimed at alleviating urban traffic congestion and meeting the demand for efficient transportation. Key challenges currently revolve around legal frameworks, technological advancements, and financial resources. Additionally, societal concerns, particularly regarding user acceptance of flying cars, play a crucial role in their development. Therefore, investigating user acceptance behavior and identifying influencing factors for flying cars is essential for informing policy decisions, adjusting market strategies, assessing commercial feasibility, and ensuring successful integration into urban landscapes.

This study offers a synthesis, evaluation, and critique of relevant literature on technology acceptance models, user acceptance in the transportation sector, trust, and perceived risk. User behavioral intention is established as the primary criterion for assessing acceptance, with six core latent variables identified: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, hedonic motivation, trust, and perceived risk. Theoretical hypotheses are formulated based on these variables, leading to the creation of a theoretical model, followed by questionnaire design. A structural equation model is developed using sample data to validate research hypotheses and explore moderating effects, including the impact of demographic characteristics.

The research outcomes reveal that various factors influence user behavioral intention towards flying cars, with perceived risk emerging as the most significant factor. Trust not only directly affects user intention but also indirectly influences it through other variables. Moreover, age is identified as a significant moderating factor in this context.

The study draws several key conclusions: safety is a primary concern for users, emphasizing the need to enhance safety features of flying cars; trust plays a dual role, warranting further investigation into strategies for building user trust; catering to users over 30 requires emphasizing simplicity and safety, while younger users are more influenced by peers, necessitating tailored promotional strategies by companies.

This paper expands the utility of the UTAUT2 model, offering valuable insights for future research on flying cars and proposing policy recommendations for the commercial advancement of flying cars based on the research findings.