Autonomous vehicles (AVs) or self-driving cars have the potential to provide many benefits such as improving mobility and reducing the energy and emissions consumed, travel time, and vehicle ownership. Thus, in the last few years, both research and industry have put significant efforts to develop AVs. However, laws and regulations are not ready yet for this switch and the legal sector is unable to take the lead but follow the development of AVs. Besides, the social acceptance is considered as a main key factor for the success of any new technology. Despite the enthusiastic speculation of AVs, little is known about the public acceptance and perception of the AVs technology or the factors that influence the public acceptance. This paper reviews the previous studies that focuses on testing the public acceptance and perception of AVs and sketches out the main trends in this area to provide some directions and recommendations for the future. This paper focuses on the influence of safety, ethics, liability, regulations, and the recent pandemic on the public acceptance of AVs.

Over the last few years, a large emphasis has been devoted to autonomous vehicles (AVs), as vehicle automation promises a large number of benefits such as: improving mobility and minimization of energy and emissions. Additionally, AVs represent a major tool in the fight against pandemics as autonomous vehicles can be used to transport people while maintaining isolation and sterilization. Thus, manufacturers are racing to introduce AVs as fast as possible. However, laws and regulations are not yet ready for this change and the legal sector is following the development of autonomous vehicles instead of taking the lead. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the previous studies in the transportation field that involve AVs with the aim of exploring the implications of AVs on the safety, public behaviour, land use, economy, society and environment, public health, and benefits of autonomous vehicles in fighting pandemics.

Over the last few years, autonomous vehicles (AVs) have witnessed tremendous worldwide interest. Although AVs have been extensively studied in the literature regarding their benefits, implications, and public acceptance, research on the physical infrastructure requirements for autonomous vehicles is still in the infancy stage. For the road infrastructure, AVs can be very promising; however, AVs might introduce new risks and challenges. This paper investigates the impact of AVs on the physical infrastructure with the objective of revealing the infrastructure changes and challenges in the era of AVs. In AVs, the human factor, which is the major factor that influences the geometric design, will not be a concern anymore so the geometric design requirements can be relaxed. On the other hand, the decrease in the wheel wander, because of the lane-keeping system, and the increase in the lane capacity, because of the elimination of the human factor, will bring an accelerated rutting potential and will quickly deteriorate the pavement condition. Additionally, the existing structural design methods for bridges are not safe to support autonomous truck platoons. For parking lots, AVs have the potential to significantly increase the capacity of parking lots using the blocking strategy. However, the implementation of this parking strategy faces multiple issues such as the inconsistent marking system. Finally, AVs will need new infrastructure facilities such as safe harbor areas.