Consumers’ Willingness to Adopt Autonomous and Electric Vehicles: A Cross-Generational Analysis

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) have clocked millions of miles on the roads and their release for public use is no longer a question of if but when. The current study is designed to address two major questions regarding consumers’ adoption behavior of AVs. First, it explores how different generational cohorts will respond to the emergence of AVs and discloses the main determinants of their adoption decision. Second, it investigates whether there is an association between people’s interests in autonomous mobility and their vehicle fuel type choice behavior. Three major generational cohorts of Baby Boomers, Generation Xers, and Millennials are considered in this study and generation-specific joint models of vehicle automation choice and fuel type choice have been developed. It is found that the determinants of individuals’ willingness to adopt autonomous vehicles are largely different across generations. Even the variables that are found to be significant in decision behavior of multiple generations have heterogeneous influences on the decision outcomes. Further, the significance of the correlation coefficients confirms the hypothesis that there is a correlation between the unobserved factors affecting the two components of the joint structure (i.e., vehicle automation choice and fuel type choice). More specifically, it is found that the unobserved factors that increase the propensity to choose non-gasoline fuel types are likely to increase the chance of adopting autonomous vehicles.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADB00 Section - Travel Analysis Methods.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Shabanpour, Ramin
  • Golshani, Nima
  • Mohammadian, Abolfazl (Kouros)
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 98th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2019-1-13 to 2019-1-17
• Date: 2019

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: References;
• Pagination: 4p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Age groups; Analysis; Attitudes; Autonomous vehicles; Choice models; Decision making; Fuels; Mobility
• Subject Areas: Energy; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01697773
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 19-00788
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 1 2019 3:51PM