摘要
Public opinion and consumer preferences are among the various constraints on the rollout of automated cars, as they will affect the decision-making of both automotive industry actors and public-sector regulators. This study contributes to the growing body of the literature regarding this issue, through a moderate-scale survey （n = 370） that incorporated both prioritization/attitudinal questions （regarding public opinion） and a stated-prefer- ence module （to identify consumer preferences）. The sur- vey protocol includes a stated-preference approach to investigate consumers＇ preferences for the possibility of very high rates of speed in automated cars on long-distance journeys. We found separately identifiable effects for average travel speeds （manifested as journey duration） and maximum travel speed in the stated-preference scenarios. In the ＇prioritization＇ component of the survey, respondents ranked having the ＇highest possible level of safety＇ as the single most important benefit that they would like auto- mated cars to deliver, ahead of benefits such as being able to performing activities while traveling or having traffic congestion reduced. This result has consequences for the car-following distances that are programmed into the control algorithms of automated cars. Documenting this finding is important, as decisions must be made in the near future by driving-algorithm designers, public-sector regu- lators, and ultimately the judiciary regarding the guidelines for acceptable automated driving-behavior instructions.
Public opinion and consumer preferences are among the various constraints on the rollout of automated cars, as they will affect the decision-making of both automotive industry actors and public-sector regulators. This study contributes to the growing body of the literature regarding this issue, through a moderate-scale survey （n = 370） that incorporated both prioritization/attitudinal questions （regarding public opinion） and a stated-prefer- ence module （to identify consumer preferences）. The sur- vey protocol includes a stated-preference approach to investigate consumers＇ preferences for the possibility of very high rates of speed in automated cars on long-distance journeys. We found separately identifiable effects for average travel speeds （manifested as journey duration） and maximum travel speed in the stated-preference scenarios. In the ＇prioritization＇ component of the survey, respondents ranked having the ＇highest possible level of safety＇ as the single most important benefit that they would like auto- mated cars to deliver, ahead of benefits such as being able to performing activities while traveling or having traffic congestion reduced. This result has consequences for the car-following distances that are programmed into the control algorithms of automated cars. Documenting this finding is important, as decisions must be made in the near future by driving-algorithm designers, public-sector regu- lators, and ultimately the judiciary regarding the guidelines for acceptable automated driving-behavior instructions.
基金
SUNY New Paltz’s SURE program for financial support
support of the University Transportation Research Center,Region 2(Grant#49997-53-25,titled:Empirical Aspects of Autonomous Cars)
