URBAN AND RURAL DRIVERS

ACCEPTANCE AND SAFETY PERCEPTIONS

OF AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES
Qualitative Study

INTRODUCTION
Self-driving autonomous vehicle is designed to monitor the
roadway and perform all safety-critical driving functions for the
entire trip. The driver will not control. The driver only provide the
destination and the vehicle will take control afterwards.

PROBLEM STATEMENT
There are a skepticisms among regular drivers about
autonomous (self-driving) vehicles. Question about how selfdriving vehicle react to aggressive human drivers or whether
automation could handle road and traffic condition.

WHY THIS TOPIC?

Identify the acceptance of autonomous
vehicle in both rural and urban areas and
identify any difference in these acceptances
Identify the acceptance among the public
and identify relationship between the
acceptance and socio-demographic
parameters such as age, gender, ethnicity.
Explore driver perception of autonomous
vehicle safety features

LITERATURE REVIEW
What is autonomous vehicles or self driving
cars
Who is the players in developing
autonomous vehicles
Implication of self-driving vehicles
Urban versus Rural difference in accepting
new technologies
Understanding acceptance and perceptions
of new technology

RESEARCH QUESTIONS/HYPOTHESIS?
Quantitative
What area between urban and rural areas has more
acceptance to autonomous vehicles?
H0: There is no significant difference between rural and urban area in terms of autonomous
vehicle acceptance
H1: There is a significant difference between rural and urban area in terms of
autonomous vehicle acceptance

What is the relationship between autonomous vehicle

acceptance and socio-demographic data such as race,
ethnicity, age and income?
H0: There is no relationship between autonomous vehicle acceptance and socio demographic
data such as race and ethnicity, age and income.
H1:
H2:
H3:
H4:

There
There
There
There

is
is
is
is

a
a
a
a

relationship
relationship
relationship
relationship

between
between
between
between

autonomous
autonomous
autonomous
autonomous

vehicle
vehicle
vehicle
vehicle

acceptance
acceptance
acceptance
acceptance

and age
and income
and gender
and race /ethnicity

RESEARCH QUESTIONS/HYPOTHESIS?
Qualitative
What are the risk factors such as traffic congestion
or road design, which may relate to autonomous
vehicle safety perceptions?
What sector of the public autonomous vehicles is
considered important?
Why autonomous vehicle has positive or negative
perception?

THEORETICAL
FRAMEWORK?
Explanatory Design:
Quantitative then Qualitative Study
Qualitative phenomenology theoretical framework:
the study tends to discover how people experience and
conceptualize certain phenomena (Bogdan & Biklen, 2004)
Quantitative content analysis

METHOD?
POPULATION/SAMPLES/SAMPLING PROCESS
Surveys and In Questionnaires with Commuters:

Randomly Select large sample data online/offline

Online sample data: emails / forms
Offline sample data : Malls, Universities, POIs
Major cities as well as suburban area will be targeted
(Rural 2.5-10K /Urban classification based on Census data)

Interview Questions with focus groups :

Small samples of 20 participant will be interviewed

Population: Drivers of state of Michigan

Variables:
Dependent: Region: Urban/rural, socio-demographic:
age, Income, gender, race/ethnicity

Independent: autonomous vehicle acceptance

METHOD?
DATA COLLECTION
Surveys and In Questionnaires with
Commuters:
Quantifiable questions on acceptance and perceptions
of autonomous vehicles
Socio-demographic data will be recorded

Interview Questions with focus groups :

Brochures and videos will be provided for autonomous
car knowledge session.
Deep inside questions about autonomous vehicle
safety perceptions

METHOD?
DATA ANALYSIS
Quantitative Statistical analysis:
Two sample t-test to identify acceptance difference between urban
and rural regions
Correlation between acceptance and socio demographic data such
as age, gender, income , race/ethnicity

Qualitative Interpretation :
Identify driver safety and risk perceptions for Autonomous vehicles.
Organize and develop relationship among concepts such as
autonomous vehicle acceptance and socio-demographic data: age,
gender, income, race/ethnicity.
Analyze text on interviews, decode, and then discover safety and
risk perceptions of autonomous vehicles.

LIMITATION / DELIMITATION
This study will focus only on commuters in the state of
Michigan
Research quality is heavily dependent on the driver
technology skills and exposure
Acceptance and perceptions is based on information
supplied by the researcher. Participant do not test or
drive autonomous vehicles.

REFERENCES
J. Yang, J.Coughlin, (2013), In-vehicle technology for self-driving cars: advantages and challenges for
aging driver, International Journal
s. Vine, A. Zolfahari, J. Polak (2015), Autonomous cars: the tension between occupant experience and
Intersection capacity, transportation research
T. Hsieh, K. Yang, Conna Yang, Chyan Yang (2012), Urban and rural differences: Multilevel latent class
analysis of online
activities and e-payment behavior pattern, emerald insight
B.Wu, C.Chen, H, Chiang, H. Perng, (2007), The design of intelligent real-time autonomous vehicle,
Journal of the Chinese institute of engineers
R. Aufrere, J Gowdy, C. Mertz, C. Thorpe, C.Wang, T. Yata (2003), Perception for collision avoidance
and autonomous
driving, The robotic Institute
J. Alonso, V. Milanes, J. Perez, E. Oneiva, C. Gonzalez, T. Pedro, (2011), Autonomous vehicle control
system for safe crossroads
H.Martinez-Barbera, D. Herrero-Perez,(2014), Multilayer distributed Intelligent control of an
autonomous car, University of Murcia

QUESTIONS?