Role played by social factors and privacy concerns in autonomous vehicle adoption

This study aims to test additional AV adoption factors by considering social factors and privacy concerns in the AV era while relying on earlier adoption models and the AV adoption literature. Unlike in most previous studies, the focus is on millennials, namely a group of potential AV adopters with distinct characteristics that must be studied separately. Moreover, fully AVs are considered, i.e., level 5, a more distant and controversial phenomenon of much greater concern for most people. The data were collected in an online questionnaire distributed to a sample of university students and the proposed model was tested with structural equation modelling (SEM). The results show that privacy concerns in the AV era together with perceived safety have a significant effect on general concerns. Alongside general concerns, technological enthusiasm, social factors, perceived benefits, and facilitating conditions affect attitude to AVs. Finally, a more positive attitude to AV, perceived safety, and facilitating conditions is shown to lead to a stronger intention to adopt an AV. Apart from these theoretical contributions, practical contributions include new perspectives for policymakers while designing future AV development strategies. Namely, car manufacturers should strongly emphasize and demonstrate the safety features of their AVs, promote them through technology enthusiasts and focus on forming positive attitude to AVs through different aspects of AVs. Governments should also do their part by establishing support infrastructures that encourage individuals to choose an AV.