The societal dimension of the automated vehicles transition: Towards a research agenda

Automated vehicles (AVs) represent a socio-technical transition of the mobility system. Thus far, research has focused predominantly on the technical dimension (i.e. technology development and operation, short-term impacts) of this transition. This paper presents a research agenda that contributes in rebalancing the focus from the technical to the societal dimension of the AVs transition. We adopt the social construction of technology approach, suggesting that technology and society are involved in a dialectical process over time that constructs each other and we identify three key dynamics of the societal dimension of AVs transition based on the multi-level perspective of technological transition. After reviewing the scholarly literature, we suggest an expansion of the research focus in three key research areas: societal acceptance, societal implications and governance of AVs to account for the societal dimension of the AVs transition. In the first area, we suggest an expansion of the research focus from consumers' adoption to citizens' acceptance of introduction of AVs. In the second area, we suggest an expansion of the research focus from short-term to long-term societal implications of AVs. In the third area, we suggest a shift from exploratory scenarios to participative anticipatory governance of desirable AVs futures