The impact of ride experience on car travelers’ adoption of private and shared autonomous vehicles

The proliferation of autonomous vehicle (AV) pilot projects provides travelers with ride experiences that might have potential influences on AV adoption. This study, in particular, investigates the impacts of ride experiences on car travelers’ (CTs) choices on AVs. Face-to-face surveys near the shared autonomous vehicle (SAV) stations are conducted to collect data on CTs in two situations: CTs possessing private conventional vehicle (PCV) and those not possessing PCV. An Integrated Choice and Latent Variable (ICLV) model is adopted to integrate ride experience, latent psychological variables, and mode choice behaviors to investigate sources of influence on CTs’ choices of AVs. The results indicate that ride experience exerts a stronger positive influence on AV adoption, compared to socio-demographic attributes such as age, gender, and income. According to marginal effect estimates, ride experience can increase the likelihood of AV adoption by 7.37%. However, at the current stage, the purchase cost of private autonomous vehicles (PAVs) remains a decisive factor for CTs. When they do not possess a PCV, and the purchase costs of PAVs and PCVs are equal, their preference shifts in favor of PAVs. We suggest that the government and AV companies persist in promoting AV pilot projects and utilize various social media channels to raise positive awareness about AVs.