Where can I take You? – The Drivers of Autonomous Driving Adoption

Autonomous driving (AD) is propagated as the future of individual traffic. Indeed, its advantages like the reduction of deathly accidents or the mobility of impaired people are promising. Therefore, traditional car manufacturers as well as technology companies do much research in this field and develop and test autonomous vehicles (AV) hurriedly. However, without being accepted by consumers, AD cannot succeed. This holds particularly with regard to the severe accidents of the recent past that raised doubts if AV are really reliable. In addition, AD produces and collects much personal data. Therefore, this paper investigates how AD is seen in the society. In particular, the focus lies on the role of trust towards manufacturers and AV and how these trust perspectives influence the attitude of people towards AD. Results show that trust has a significant influence on people’s attitude and adoption behaviour