Drivers’ Perspective on the Acceptance of SAE Level 4 Self-Driving Cars: Introducing the AVA model

Sammanfattning

Autonomous Vehicles (AV) are destinated to revolutionise people transportation bringing huge benefits in personal safety and environmental sustainability. In particular, Society Automotive Engineers (SAE) level 4 and level 5 cars are expected to reduce 90% of car accidents and the level of ecological print. However, to achieve those improve- ments an elevated acceptance level is necessary, which makes Strategic Communication a fundamental instrument to complete this revolution. This thesis analyses the acceptance of SAE level 4 self-driving cars by assuming the point of view of the drivers, including their previous personal experiences. The new Automated Vehicle Adoption model (AVA) is proposed, which states acceptance to be driven by relative utilitarian performance ex- pectancy, current hedonic performance, perceived ease of use and automation trust. The model is tested on a sample of 321 Italian drivers who filled out an online survey and data were analysed through confirmative factor analysis and multiple regression analysis. Findings show a statistical significance influence of all the independent variable involved, with a stronger contribution by relative utilitarian performance expectancy and automated trust. In addition, contribution of current hedonic performance in negative. Finally, sug- gestions are given to better tailor strategic communication campaigns and about how to expand the research on this topic.