R&D investment strategies of robotaxi services: The role of cost variation and consumers’ trust

The promotion of robotaxi services can improve the efficiency and sustainability of urban transportation while requires substantial research and development (R&D) investment in relevant technologies. This study intends to investigate the strategies of R&D investment for robotaxi services by considering a supply chain that includes an automobile manufacturer, a robotaxi platform, and consumers. Two scenarios are considered, where either the automobile manufacturer or the robotaxi platform undertakes the investment. In addition, this study analyzes the effects of unit investment cost variations, consumer trust, and government subsidy. Further, this study extends the main models to incorporate the effects of market size variations, consumer-targeted subsidies, fleet size, and simultaneous investment. The results are presented as follows. (1) In both scenarios, the level of R&D investment is negatively affected by unit cost while positively impacted by government subsidy and consumers’ trust. (2) The analysis identifies two thresholds for the robotaxi platform’s unit R&D cost variation. If the cost variation is above the upper threshold, the automobile manufacturer will undertake R&D investment. Otherwise, if the cost variation is below the lower threshold, the robotaxi platform will undertake R&D investment. (3) Lower R&D investment unit cost, higher degree of government subsidy, and greater degree of consumers’ trust jointly promote the formation of equilibrium strategies. Overall, whether the automobile manufacturer or the robotaxi platform undertakes R&D investment is jointly affected by relative investment costs of both stakeholders, consumers’ trust, and government subsidy. Therefore, this study offers both theoretical and practical implications for R&D investment in robotaxi services.