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The survey captured socio-economic characteristics of respondents first, and then asked questions to understand user’s perceptions regarding autonomous vehicles and how AVs will change trip characteristics and travel behavior. Below, a summary of the survey findings is listed:

 Currently, 60-70% of trips are done while driving alone and 17% of trips to school

involved drop-offs.

 The majority of people lived 5-15 miles from school, and they preferred to drive 3

miles or less for grocery-related trips. This showed that travel time was an

Interestingly, the survey revealed that AVs may facilitate longer grocery-related

trips due to the reduced burden.

 More than half of the respondent were familiar with AVs, but very few were totally

unfamiliar or had never heard about them.

 A total of 12% of respondents mentioned they would not consider using AV under

any circumstance. This agrees with the market penetration model developed in this

study, which estimated that 13% of US households will never adopt AVs. This

reasoning for these people never electing to use AVs varies from the loss of the

pleasure of driving to a lack of confidence in the technology.

 The most common expectations stemming from AVs were less traffic crashes and

less stressful driving. Although several studies have stated that AVs will

dramatically reduce traffic congestions, 24% of respondents did not agree. The fear

of system failure and hacking was the greatest concern.

 According to survey results, there was not a considerable difference between trip

purposes for which people were willing to use AVs. Respondents showed similar

interest in using AVs for various trip purposes including grocery trips, commuting

to school, and commuting to work. The interest to use AVs for leisure trips was

slightly less when compared to other trips; this may indicate that some respondents

enjoy driving which enhances the quality of leisure trips.

 Among respondents that were eager to use AVs, 75% preferred to own AVs while

20% found them more attractive as a rental car or taxi. This is important as several

benefits of shared vehicles on traffic and congestion which will increase the interest

further.

 20% of AV users mentioned they were going to be alert and watch the road while

in an AV, 17% said they would relax, and 10% would engage in more productive

activities.

 Regarding vehicle size, 66% of participants mentioned they would not change the

size of their vehicle, but the majority was interested in having a larger one. This is

reasonable because the increased size would facilitate the driver/rider to perform

other tasks while the vehicle is in motion.

 The hypothesis that people would select further residential locations was supported

by the responses. It was noted that the majority of prospective AV users were willing

to live further. Also the hypothesis that people will select further destinations was

supported by the survey. According to the responses, AV users were likely to accept

driving up to 15 miles for their grocery trips. It should be noted that this change

was only applied to households which would adopt AVs.

This section also presented the results of an effort to examine consumers’ attitudes towards AV market penetration. In particular, two major dimensions were explored: the willingness to pay and willingness to relocate in relation to AV adoption. Based on a survey conducted at the Florida International University in Miami, Florida, two ordered logit models were developed and analyzed.

The models revealed significant impacts of individual attributes, household structure, daily commute characteristics, and consumers’ perceptions of benefits/concerns

on both willingness to pay and relocate. In particular, results showed higher WTP values for young males (less than 30 years old) and long distance commuters. Crash experience generally decreased the willingness to pay for driverless cars. Among respondents with crash experiences, two types of respondents showed higher willingness to pay: those who were involved in major incapacitating injuries and those who had experienced travelling in the at-fault driver’s vehicle. As expected, respondents who recently purchased a new vehicle were less likely to pay high values for AVs. Benefits such as more travel time productivity and lower vehicle emissions showed significant positive contributions to willingness to pay while loss in driving skills was a barrier towards willingness to pay. People with moderate familiarity showed the lowest willingness to pay, which shows the importance of education on AV technologies.

In terms of the likelihood to relocate, results showed higher willingness to relocate for males, low income households, and carpool drivers. On the contrary, household size and number of drivers in the family had a negative impact on the model. Among the benefits, traffic-related advantages such as lower congestion, fewer crashes and positive environmental impacts increased individuals’ willingness to relocate. In terms of concerns, vehicle safety and data privacy were among the major discouraging factors.

The preferred method of using AVs showed that young generation prefer to own AVs versus middle age group which prefer using AVs as a transit system. Also the model results showed individuals with white ethnicity rather owning AVs than renting or using it as a transit. Regarding the household size, it was shown that families with higher number of people prefer to use AVs by owning. Although the result of this study did not show any

significant impact of income on the preferred way, but the coefficient sign shows households with income less than 99k per year prefer other methods than owning AVs, while households with higher level of incomes prefer owning AVs. Considering the trip characteristics, those with high number of commuting days (five times a week) showed to be interested in owning AVs or renting rather than using them as a transit system. Individuals which normally commute to destination using drive alone mode, preferred owning while individuals which their own way distance to school was 20-30 miles preferred to use AVs a transit.

The results of this study were subject to a number of limitations. Data limitation is probably the most important shortcoming of this study. First, the sample size was relatively small (144 observations) which limits the generality of the inferences. Second, the sample is limited to university students and employees which may also bias the results.