Modeling Americans’ autonomous vehicle preferences: A focus on dynamic ride-sharing, privacy & long-distance mode choices

This study emphasizes AV mode choices, including Americans’ willingness to pay (WTP) to ride with a stranger in a shared AV fleet vehicle on various trip types and the long-distance travel impacts of AVs. Exactly 2,588 complete responses to a stated-preference survey with 70 questions provide valuable insights on privacy concerns, safety and dynamic ride-sharing with strangers, long-distance travel and preferences for smarter vehicles and transport systems. Two hurdle models (which allow for a high share of zero-value responses) were estimated: one to predict WTP to share a ride and another to determine WTP to anonymize location while using AVs, and a multinomial logit was developed to estimate long-distance mode choices with AVs and SAVs available. Results suggest that WTP to share rides will rise over time, for a variety of reasons, and SAV use will be particularly popular for long-distance business travel. Elasticity estimates suggest that privacy may not be an important concern for AV-based travel.

Source: Technological Forecasting and Social Change - November 6, 2019 Category: Science Source Type: research