Public Misconceptions About Autonomous Vehicles And Their Impact

As a technology that is not ready yet,autonomous vehicles(AVs)have potential to impact transportation and society considerably in the future.Many beliefs surrounding this transformative technology are criticized as “misconceptions.” Public misconceptions are rarely examined in the public attitude literature of AVs.Understanding how the public views these beliefs can offer insights for improving public communication and policymaking.Study 1(N = 1,209)selected 24 AV-related beliefs that have been considered“misconceptions”(including three factual misconceptions about current AVs and 21 arguable misconceptions)from the scientific literature and social media and completed the survey.Participants reached consensus on 16 beliefs.They had some factual misconceptions about AVs;for instance,15.1% participants agreed that mature business models for AVs have been established.Four classes of participants emerged through latent class analysis,labeled as “don’t know”(19.2%),“neutral to positive”(32.6%),“na?ve enthusiasts”(28.3%),and “sober skeptics”(19.9%).The results show that those holding more factual misconceptions about AVs were more receptive to AVs,whereas those holding fewer misconceptions about AVs were more skeptical about AVs.Study 2(N = 1,026)explored the prevalence of three factual misconceptions and their correlations with trust and attitudinal factors related to AVs(i.e.,risk perceptions and behavioral intention).More than 70% of participants holding one or more of the three misconceptions.Furthermore,participants with more misconceptions were more positive toward AVs in terms of specific attitudinal factors(e.g.,those who believed that AVs are already available reported greater behavioral intention to use and willingness to pay for AVs),consistent with Study 1.The current research reports a trend: holding more misconceptions about AVs is associated viewing AVs more positively.Effective public communication is urgent to dispel myths and build rational public expectations about AVs.