Public acceptance of autonomous vehicles (AVs) is vital for a society to reap their intended benefits such as reduced traffic accidents, land usage, congestion and environmental pollution. The purpose of this paper is to use the theory of planned behaviour to pinpoint and examine the components affecting public acceptance of AVs. A model consisting of a network of hypothesised relationships is introduced. Thereafter, 526 residents in Seoul, Korea, were given a survey created for this research. Subsequently, to evaluate the collected information and estimate the model, structural equation modelling was adopted. The outcomes show individuals' mindset on AVs, subjective customs, and behavioural influence directly influencing the acceptance of AVs. Furthermore, cognitive and emotive factors, namely comparative advantage, compatibility, complexity and hedonic motivation indirectly influence the acceptance of AVs via mindset and behavioural manipulation. Based on analysing the cumulative effect, attitude emerged with the strongest effect on public acceptance of autonomous vehicles. After this is, in decreasing order of influence, behavioural control, relative advantage, subjective norms, compatibility, hedonic motivation and complexity. The findings of this study implicate the prioritisation and allocation of resources, and policies relating to marketing, education, subsidisation and infrastructure development to better public acceptance of AVs.
Keywords: acceptance; autonomous vehicles; intention; structural equation modelling; theory of planned behaviour.