This paper presents the current knowledge on ridership scenarios for autonomous vehicles and shuttles within the context of children’s mobility. Perspectives from parents, caregivers, and schools provide a unique use case that needs further attention from vehicle manufacturers and policy regulatory agencies. Social benefits of and barriers to adoption, willingness, and acceptance as well as hypothetical use scenarios are discussed from a family mobility perspective. Relevant accounts from other forms of automation are presented in parallel to highlight the challenges and opportunities for using autonomous and automated vehicles to enhance parent-child mobility practice. Future research opportunities are discussed to highlight the need to better understand barriers to adoption from parent, family, and school perspectives as well as potential practical contributions and real-world implications.

When considering autonomous vehicles (AV) as a potential to increase the mobility of children, one must consider parent opinion, as parents make transportation decisions for their families. This decision making may be impacted by several factors including peer influence on technology adoption from other parents. The current paper examines the potential for the social influence of other parents to impact parent willingness to adopt AVs for their own teenagers. Early adopter status was found to be significantly related to willingness, while effects of sex and age were non-significant. These findings add to the literature that the perceived notion of being an early adopter of technology contributes to parent willingness to use AV for their adolescent children. Future research should examine social and technology readiness factors in the willingness and adoption of AV in children’s mobility from a family perspective.

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Previous research has identified that autonomous vehicles (AVs) may be useful in increasing the mobility of certain groups, including children. Teenagers present a unique ridership case, as many teenagers hold a form of driver’s license although they are still children. Using an online survey, parents were asked about their general opinions of AV as well as several questions regarding their willingness to transport their teenagers in an AV unattended. Results indicated that factors such as early adopter status, the potential to delay teenager licensing, and perceived safety were related to parent willingness. These findings may be used to shape future research into using AVs to increase the mobility of teenagers.