Acceptance of autonomous shuttles for school and leisure trips from parents’ perspective

Kurzfassung

Mobility of children has changed significantly in recent years. The number of parents taking their children to school and leisure activities by car has increased significantly especially for elementary school children. According to recent studies, in Germany, 34 % of children under the age of 10 years are driven to school by car (incl. child care and pre-school) and 47 % to leisure activities. A high proportion of car journeys leads to a decline in children's independent mobility. Parental company is another factor influencing their independent mobility. Regardless the means of transport, 10-year-old children cover 49 % of their journeys with their parents or with their parents and their siblings. The number for 6-year-old children is with 82 % even higher. The main reasons for the decline in children’s mobility independence are reported time constraints within the family, convenience, parents’ fear of strangers, and traffic safety concerns of other modes of transport. While a lot of research on children’s mobility focusses on school trips, little is known about children’s trips to leisure activities. Even though, these trips may require more planning as public transport or bikeable routes are not always available. This leaves parents with driving their children as the sole means of transportation. Autonomous shuttles (SAE Level 5) transporting children to their activities might be a solution addressing parents’ needs (e.g. time constraints, safety concerns) and fulfilling children’s mobility requirement. The aim of this online questionnaire study was to examine whether the ratings of acceptance motives of autonomous shuttles differ depending on the parents’ gender or purpose of journey. Results showed that parents had more privacy concerns for school trips compared to leisure trips. Female participants had a higher desire of control and more safety concerns than male participants. Male participants rated behavioral intention to use higher than female participants. Females’ trust ratings for AV transporting their children to leisure activities were higher than males’ ratings, while the opposite was observed for school trips. Altogether, all acceptance motives were rated positively indicating the potential of autonomous vehicles as a facilitator of the independent mobility of children. Nonetheless, future research is needed to investigate the influence of the acceptance motives on the behavioral intention.