Autonomous shuttles can make a significant contribution to a region’s mobility system when well integrated into a multimodal transportation environment. “Autonomous vehicles, particularly shuttles and buses with minimal driver involvement or completely driverless shuttles, will only succeed in our mobility system if society accepts and uses these services,” says Claudia Luger-Bazinger, Innovation Researcher at Salzburg Research.<\/p>\n
Salzburg Research examined the perceived safety of passengers in an autonomous shuttle (SAE Level 4) without an onboard operator. Sixteen passengers experienced rides in driverless shuttles monitored only by a supervisor in a control center, and they reported their sense of safety afterwards. The participants went through different test scenarios and were also confronted with unpleasant situations: in one scenario, they were alone in the self-driving shuttle, while in another, they were with another passenger who exhibited disruptive behavior. Additionally, the study investigated how the test subjects reacted when the maximum passenger capacity was exceeded, and a technical failure was simulated.<\/p>\n
The acceptance and willingness of people to use automated vehicles depend on several factors, including socio-demographic characteristics such as age, gender, income, and education level, as well as context-specific factors such as purchase prices, incentives, familiarity, travel times, and waiting times. However, one of the most critical aspects for acceptance is the perceived safety from the passengers’ perspective. “As autonomous shuttles represent a new form of transportation without human drivers, passengers need to have trust in driverless shuttles to feel safe,” says Luger-Bazinger.<\/p>\n
Overall, the passengers in the study had a high sense of safety. They were surveyed after each test ride and reported feeling “safe” overall (27 percent of responses) or “very safe” (73 percent of responses). None of the passengers chose the option “less safe” or “not safe.”<\/p>\n
When asked about the factors influencing their sense of safety, the passengers provided 63 statements across all test rides, which were further analyzed. “The passengers’ responses could be categorized into four different categories, with the two most influential factors being the shuttle’s driving style and trust in the technology,” explains Luger-Bazinger.<\/p>\n
It was found that the shuttle’s driving style played a central role and was mentioned in 35 percent of all responses. For example, one passenger felt safe due to a “smooth ride without jerking.” Another passenger appreciated “the very smooth ride,” while another enjoyed the “gentle braking and very quiet operating sounds.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Salzburg Research conducted a study to examine the perceived safety of passengers on board a driverless shuttle without an operator. An appropriate response to concerns and challenges regarding perceived safety will contribute to further promoting the acceptance of automated vehicles in society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":5769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digitalisierung-en","category-forschung-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-salzburg.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-salzburg.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-salzburg.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-salzburg.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-salzburg.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6317"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-salzburg.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9674,"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-salzburg.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6317\/revisions\/9674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-salzburg.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-salzburg.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-salzburg.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-salzburg.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}