How People Perceive the Safety of Self-Driving Buses: A Quantitative Analysis Model of Perceived Safety

Abstract

With the continuous development of automatic driving technology and advancements in related experimental research, the probability of traffic accidents caused by human factors has been greatly reduced. However, people are still cautious about the safety of automated driving technology. The purpose of this study was to investigate users’ perceived safety indicators and the psychological factors of their perceived safety judgment of self-driving buses. In this study, a structural model of the factors that influence self-driving buses, including behavioral intention of technology acceptance, trust theory, perceived risk, and perceived safety, was developed based on the technology acceptance model (TAM). Subsequently, a relevant survey of 215 respondents was conducted and analyzed using the partial least squares method. The results indicated that trust, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use were important factors for judging the perceived safety of self-driving buses. The structural model developed in this study can quantify and analyze user data to filter out the factors that influence the perceived safety of self-driving buses, which is conducive to improving people’s trust and acceptance of self-driving buses.

Research on the Public’s Intention to Use Shared Autonomous Vehicles: Based on Social Media Data Mining and Questionnaire Survey

“…Kenesei et al [24] conducted a study based on the public's trust/risk/intention to use AVs and found that trust positively affects the public's intention to use (IU) AVs and also has a significant negative effect on perceived risk. Li et al's [9] study on self-driving buses is also consistent with this. Therefore, this paper makes the following hypotheses:…”

“…Marvin [1] conducted statistics on these studies and found that there were 119 psychological factors involved. For example, Li et al [9] found that users' acceptance and choice of autonomous buses are based on the public's perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of the product. Yuen et al [5] found that attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control all promote the public's willingness to use SAVs.…”

How does people's trust in automated vehicles change after automation errors occur? An empirical study on dynamic trust in automated driving

“…Additionally, scholars have also demonstrated the effects of perceived safety on trust in AVs before and during driving (Li et al, 2022;Tan et al, 2021;Zhang et al, 2019).…”

“…These two types of perceptions are emphasized as key factors in studying changes in trust (Muir & Moray, 1996; Muir, 1994; Perkins et al, 2010). Additionally, scholars have also demonstrated the effects of perceived safety on trust in AVs before and during driving (Li et al, 2022; Tan et al, 2021; Zhang et al, 2019).…”

The Impact of Individual Differences on the Acceptance of Self-Driving Buses: A Case Study of Nanjing, China

“…They do not need to be operated by a passenger and can stop and drive on one or more defined routes by themselves. Self-driving buses have many advantages, such as reducing energy consumption, optimizing road-resource allocation, improving traffic accessibility, and increasing traffic operation efficiency [11][12][13][14][15]. Several companies around the world are already developing self-driving buses and conducting regional road tests, and some projects are ready for mass production.…”