The roles of perceived personal safety and perceived vehicle safety in the choice of fully automated taxis: trust as a mediator

Abstract

In this paper we aim to investigate the role of perceived safety in the choice of automated taxis (AT) versus normal taxi (NT), focusing on both possible vehicle failures and harmful events, and investigating the causal relation between perceived safety and trust in their impact to the choice of ATs. For this purpose, using data collected in Newcastle and Toronto, hybrid choice models were estimated to capture effects of these three latent psychological factors in the choices of ATs. Results confirm that both Perceived Vehicle Safety (PVS) and Perceived Personal Safety (PPS) have significantly positive effects on trust, which in turn has a significant positive effect on the choice of ATs. This result confirmed the foundation role of perceived safety for building trust on ATs as expected, but PVS is a stronger antecedent of trust than PPS, and this effect is consistent in both datasets, Newcastle and Toronto.