Autonomous Vehicle (AV), also known as self-driving or driverless vehicles, is a technology that intends to replace driving tasks traditionally performed by human drivers. This study aims to gain a better understanding of opinions, concerns, and general acceptance by Malaysian drivers regarding autonomous and self-driving vehicles. The survey questionnaires were adopted from Schoettle & Sivak (2014b) on the topic of public acceptance of driverless vehicles and what would the respondents do when they are not driving. The survey was conducted among the general public in Malaysia inclusive of 19 questions to address topics on public awareness and understanding about AV, benefits of AV, concerns on AV, attitudes toward owning or sharing AV, willingness to pay for AV and their use of free time while riding AV. A total of 520 respondents involved in this survey, however the analysis only considered the respondents who have heard of AV, which amounted to 361 via face to face interview and online survey form. Based on the survey,63.7% were male and 36.3% female. Only 15.2% of the respondents said that they would not ride in a completely self-driving vehicles. AV is also expected to provide a wide range of benefits that attracted most of the respondents. The majority of the respondents expect lower vehicle emission and better fuel economy. Most respondents were also concerned with issues related to AV especially on safety consequences of equipment failure. The survey also shows that most Malaysians are not willing to invest in owning a driverless vehicle. Future studies should continuously consider people’s perception from different perspectives, by taking into account various user viewpoints and characteristics.

This paper highlights the factors that should be addressed by any countries when considering Autonomous Vehicle (AV) implementation, along with issues and opportunities that may arise. AV is an emerging technology that has far-reaching applications and implications beyond all current expectations. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the relevant literatures and explores a broad spectrum of readiness factors, issues and opportunities in the aspects of legislations, litigation, liability, road and surrounding infrastructures, map availability, public acceptance, privacy and public perceptions. While the intention of AV implementation may be driven to address several road safety and road efficiency issues, the traffic mix between AV and non-AV at its initial stage of implementation may introduce a negative impact towards the overall road safety and traffic operations. A systematic framework in adopting and implementing the technology should therefore be established to ensure its objectives are met. This paper contributes to the literature on the fronts that it attempts to shed light on future opportunities as well as possible issues associated with AV implementation; and provide an overall guidance on fundamental factors to be considered before implementing AV.