Exploring the association between socio-demographic factors and public acceptance towards fully automated vehicles: Insights from a survey in Australia

Fewer studies have investigated the factors affecting fully Automated Vehicles (AVs) acceptance and their association with demographics and travel behaviour in the Australian context. Evidence shows that public opinions and adoption towards AVs may vary by country. Therefore, this study aims to systematically explore the factors affecting public opinion towards fully AVs by conducting a survey in Australia. Specifically, the study examines seven key attributes (benefits/usefulness, ease of use, attitude, data privacy, willingness to pay more, social influence, and trust) towards the opinions of AVs and their association between demographic and travel behaviour. The results from 809 Australian responses show that Australians tend to have a positive attitude toward AVs. Age and years of driving experience are the two most important factors instead of travel characteristics (e.g. frequency of driving cars, travel time by car, and distance of driving cars). Being less exposed to automation technology is likely to be the main reason affecting the adoption of AVs for the two socio-demographic factors: age and years of driving experience. Males hold a relatively positive attitude towards AVs than females. Likewise, Australians are less likely to pay more for fully AVs than conventional vehicles. Data privacy is also concerning for Australians.