Public opinion on connected and automated vehicles: the Czech context

Abstract

Despite limited experience with Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs), the general public has been developing beliefs and attitudes about them. These expected benefits, concerns, trust, and other psychological factors play an important role in the way of accepting and adopting this new technology and as such should be available to various stakeholders. This study surveys the Czech public perceptions and attitudes relevant to policy-making in the area of CAVs. Between November 2017 and January 2018, a representative survey was conducted among the general population in the Czech Republic. Overall, 1 065 randomly selected persons aged above 15 were personally interviewed. The sample, there were 523 (49%) women; the average age was 50 years (SD = 17). Results showed that more than 65% of participants (i.e. 693) heard about CAVs before the survey. At the same time, 87% of the respondents with previous knowledge of the topic (i.e. 586) declared only limited awareness regarding CAVs. When it comes to the general opinion on CAVs, almost 40% of the respondents stated "rather positive" or "very positive" view. Also, more than 50% of the respondents associated wide usage of CAVs with better traffic safety. The majority of those sharing the negative opinion was members of an older generation, achieved a lower educational level and having lower household income. When it comes to the policy recommendations, the first wave of implementation should focus on applications in the more structured and controlled environment such as airports or metro.

Attitudes Toward Four Levels of Self-Driving Technology Among Elderly Drivers

“…A recent survey conducted in eight European countries showed that the elderly are concerned mostly about the safety of automated driverless vehicles and would prefer to travel in autonomous vehicles with the presence of a human supervisor (Kyriakidis et al, 2020 ). Similar findings showing that older and disabled persons are more concerned about reliability and safety of the autonomous vehicles, than younger and non-disabled persons, have been found in several earlier studies (Nielsen and Haustein, 2018 ; Gabrhel et al, 2019 ; Huff et al, 2019 ; Liu et al, 2019 ; Robertson et al, 2019 ; Liang et al, 2020 ). The cost of automatization also seems to concern older people.…”

“…A comparison sample of young or middle-aged drivers would have provided an informative control, and thus a larger study that includes all age groups should be conducted. Earlier studies show that automated vehicles are preferred by typically male, young, highly educated, and those who live in large urban areas (Nielsen and Haustein, 2018 ; Gabrhel et al, 2019 ; Huff et al, 2019 ; Wang and Zhao, 2019 ). The resistance to automated vehicles may be partly explained by the lower risk preference among the elderly: older drivers expect a much higher safety level from the new technology than younger drivers do before accepting it (Liu et al, 2019 ; Wang and Zhao, 2019 ).…”

“…It seems, however, that the potential of new technology may be compromised because of the low acceptance rate among elderly drivers. One way to increase acceptance is to first apply autonomous driving in public transport, e.g., buses and the metro so that the users get familiarized with the technology without the need to actively deciding about it (Gabrhel et al, 2019 ). While young drivers are ready to accept new technologies, older drivers need more time to adjust.…”

How people speak about autonomous cars - an analysis of internet discussions in Czech Republic

“…Czech respondents were concerned a lot about the inability of AV to adequately respond to unexpected situations and about the failures of AV systems and its effect on road safety. They did not show much concern about the legal aspects of AV use or the private nature of the data, as is the case especially with respondents in the US (Gabrhel, Ježek, & Havlíčková, 2019).…”

“…There are also data available from the Czech population. Cultural differences have been demonstrated and, with it, the importance of examining concerns for various demographic characteristics (Gabrhel, Ježek, & Havlíčková, 2019). Czech respondents were concerned a lot about the inability of AV to adequately respond to unexpected situations and about the failures of AV systems and its effect on road safety.…”