Understanding The Acceptance Intentions Of Autonomous Buses On The Perspective Of User Experience

With the development of science and technology,especially the automated driving technology,profound changes will happen in the future transport.Autonomous bus is expected to become an important part of public transportation due to its intelligent and information advantages.At present,relevant pilot operation projects have been carried out in many places.For its further development,it is necessary to explore the degree of public acceptance and its influencing factors.Globally,there are few studies on the acceptance of autonomous buses based on the user experience.Therefore,this paper established an extended TAM model to collect the data of 576 passengers who had taken autonomous buses in Tianjin,China,and conducted an empirical analysis on the acceptance of autonomous buses.Non-parametric test and multi group analysis were used to analyze the demographic characteristics.The results show that young men with high education and income are more likely to accept autonomous buses,and may become the target group of the early autonomous bus market.Data analysis of the model leads to the following conclusions: First,perceived ease of use is not an important factor influencing continuance intention to use,suggesting that learning how to ride an autonomous bus is not a major obstacle to acceptance and use.Secondly,perceived road safety and perceived in-vehicle safety have different impacts on people’s acceptance degree.Perceived in-vehicle safety has a significant positive impact on continuance intention to use,while perceived road safety has a significant positive impact on perceived usefulness.Thirdly,the results confirm the significant positive effect of bus service quality and general attitude towards bus.This study also verifies the moderating effect of passengers’ dependence on drivers and riding habits.Specifically,passengers’ dependence on drivers weakens the positive relationship between perceived road safety and perceived usefulness,while riding habits enhance the positive relationship between general attitude towards buses and continuance intention to use.This study provides theoretical and practical guidance for enhancing the acceptance of autonomous buses.