Travel experience matters: Expected personal mobility impacts after simulated L3/L4 automated driving

Abstract

Automated vehicles (AVs) are expected to change personal mobility in the near future. Most studies on the mobility impacts of AVs focus on fully automated (SAE L5) vehicles, but the gradual development of the technology will probably bring AVs with more limited capabilities to begin with. This stated-preference study focused on the potential mobility impacts of conditionally automated (L3) and highly automated cars (L4). We investigated personal mobility impacts among 59 participants who experienced automated driving repeatedly in a driving simulator. Half of them drove with an L3 and half with an L4 motorway function. After the first and final drive they answered questions on their travel experience and how automated vehicles could change their mobility. After the drives, participants in both groups were willing to accept 30–50% longer travel times for a 30 min trip if they did not need to drive the whole trip themselves. This translates into savings of around 30% for the perceived value of travel time on routes where automation is available. There were no statistically significant differences between L3 and L4 in the accepted travel times. Most participants did not expect to make more trips with automated cars, but around half of them anticipated making longer trips. The amount of car travel may increase more with L4 than with L3 automation, possibly due somewhat to changes in the experienced travel quality. The results suggest that the mobility impacts of automated driving may increase with a higher level of automation.

Cueing roles of new energy vehicle manufacturers’ technical capability and reputation in influencing purchase intention in China

“…Perceived travel quality refers to customers' evaluation of travel quality and judgment of its overall superiority, involving three main parameters associated with mobile transportation: time, comfort and travel cost (Curiel Esparza et al, 2016). Lehtonen et al (2021) further divided it into five dimensions from the perspective of drivers (feeling of comfort, feeling of safety, user confidence, user stress and secondary task engagement). Accordingly, this study defines perceived travel quality as customers' subjective assessment of five dimensions: NEV comfort, convenience and economy, as well as manufacturer responsiveness and reliability (Okada et al, 2019).…”

“…Considering the specificity of NEVs, the items of reputation were adapted from Ling et al (2019) and Dong and Zheng (2022), comprising seven elements. Combining NEV and manufacturer characteristics, perceived travel quality was measured with 6 reflective items (Okada et al, 2019;Lehtonen et al, 2021). Perceived brand value includes two dimensions as defined: functional value and emotional value.…”

Travel Demand Increment Due to the Use of Autonomous Vehicles

“…In this regard, AVs are set to be much preferable to long distances trips [10,11], as the passengers make better use of their travel time in a more efficient manner than when they spend it driving [12]. Furthermore, travelers who do not drive now or drive less than they might like will have the desire to replace the non-car trip with a car trip by spending longer travel times inside AVs [13][14][15][16][17].…”