Knowledge as a key determinant of public support for autonomous vehicles

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) have the potential to revolutionize transportation safety and mobility, but many people are still concerned about the safety of AVs and hesitate to use them. Here the authors survey 4112 individuals to explore the relationship between knowledge and public support for AVs. The authors find that AV support has a positive relationship with scientific literacy (objective knowledge about science) and perceived understanding of AV (self-assessed knowledge). Respondents who are supportive of AVs tended to have more objective AV knowledge (objective knowledge about AVs). Moreover, the results of further experiments show that increasing people's self-assessed knowledge or gaining additional objective AV knowledge may contribute to increasing their AV support. These findings therefore improve the understanding of the relationship between public knowledge levels and AV support, enabling policy-makers to develop better strategies for raising AV support, specifically, by considering the role of knowledge, which in turn may influence public behavioral intentions and lead to higher levels of AV acceptance.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-52103-6
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/20452322
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Copyright © 2024. The Author(s).
• Authors:
  • Tan, Hao
  • Liu, Jiayan
  • Chen, Cong
  • Zhao, Xue
  • Yang, Jialuo
  • Tang, Chao
• Publication Date: 2024

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Pagination: 2156
• Serial:
  • Scientific Reports
  • Volume: 14
  • Issue Number: 1
  • Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
  • ISSN: 2045-2322
  • Serial URL: http://www.nature.com/srep/index.html
• Publication flags:

  Open Access (libre)

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Acceptance; Attitudes; Autonomous vehicles; Consumer behavior; Public opinion; Vehicle safety
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01908546
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Feb 20 2024 9:16AM