Automated driving acceptance and expectations: A cross-national perspective

This study uses data from an online survey conducted in eight countries (China, Germany, Greece, Japan, Poland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States) to investigate acceptance of and expectations towards conditionally automated driving. Acceptance was assessed using three questions that captured respondents’ willingness to use and to acquire an automated vehicle (AV), with answers showing substantial cross-country variation. 93% of respondents in China were enthusiastic towards automated driving systems (ADS), compared to 36% in the United Kingdom. Participants were asked about their expectations towards ADS, assessing which aspects would be better or worse in an AV than in a manually driven vehicle (MV), and rating the importance of each aspect in purchase decisions. Overall, driving safety, adherence to traffic rules, and the accuracy and reliability of performance were rated as the most important AV purchase decision aspects. However, these were not the areas where respondents expected the greatest performance gains compared with driving themselves, suggesting a potential mismatch between priorities and expectations. Country-level results showed that safety and reliability-related aspects were consistently valued, whereas the importance of convenience and novelty aspects varied. In terms of performance expectations, most countries anticipated AVs to perform better than MVs in all areas except ownership costs, though levels of optimism differed considerably across countries. These findings highlight the need for the industry to address specific public concerns, aligning system capabilities with user expectations across diverse national contexts.